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anxiouspotatorants · 3 years

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Whoopsy daisy I made a Shadow and Bone random thoughts post:

The costumes in this show are impeccable. I was drooling over all the keftas and the ball gowns in 1.05 and the crow outfits. Hell, even the winter-camo outfits that Mal, Mikhael and Dubrov wore in 1.04 were amazing.

Am I the only one who isn’t surprised by the kruge pronounciation? Because I thought it would sound like how English people say Scandinavian words and I wasn’t wrong.

Coming in to this show as someone who had only read the Six of Crows duology, I expected to at least tolerate Malina based on the trailer clips. I kid you not: less than five minutes into the very first episode they owned my ass. That might be a new record for me.

Seriously the friendship? The pining? The finding home in each other and being able to acknowledge their faults and apologize to each other? Both of them having massive “fight me” energy and protecting each other? Hugs?? Why am I surprised that I ship this?

Some of those scene transitions/flashback edits were so good! Like I know they repeated that meadow scene a lot throughout the season, but the cuts from kid-Mal looking at the rabbit to grown up Mal psyching himself up for the fist fight? Poetic cinema.

The Darkling was horrible and I love it. He wasn’t a carbon copy villain, nor did his complexity redeem him. He was a perfectly complex and understandable monster and I am living for it. I have not been so happy to despise a character in ages and I genuinely bow in gratitude to both the writers and Ben Barnes, because I finally got to enjoy watching a character I did not for one second root for ( #writevillainswellagain)

Look I already loved Jesper in the book but his on-screen translation elevated him from a fave to the fave. I was worried that they would push him into a comedic relief-role, but he got to keep both his heart, his depth, and his humour. Kit Young did an amazing job bringing what was already a great character on page to an even greater character on screen and I once again applaud.

Am I a bit bitter that the casting had some interesting choices for certain roles (aka hiring light skin and mid-size actors for explicitly darker skin and plus-size roles)? Kind of. Do I think there are important discussions worth having about this? Yup. Do I also think that every actor hired for Shadow and Bone did an amazing job and deserve zero hate and massive amounts of love? Also yes.

I had Alexei for one episode and one episode only, and I still miss that poor sucker. This show did a surprisingly good job with making me care about a massive amount of characters considering the screen time they had and the amount of episodes this season had. Good job.

For some reason I expected Inej to be a lot more brooding based on how I perceived her in the books but I love what Amita Suman did with her. Her translation completely recontextualised everything I remember from the books and just brought this truly fresh character to life. Assassin with a conscience indeed.

Also I did love the Kaz we got in this season but I can barely contain myself as I wait for season 2 to be made and for a certain flashback to take place because that moment in the book was visceral and it stayed with me for a long time and I knew before the show announcement that this flashback could become a television moment.

Speaking of Kaz the crows were so chaotic and messy and I’m here for it. Their interactions with each other and their improvised back-up plans were everything. I somehow didn’t expect the crows to become the comedic relief of the season but it honestly makes so much sense.

A couple episodes in I still didn’t get the Zoya hype (remember I haven’t read the books) but was a massive Genya fan. By the end of the season I was like “oh both of these girls are getting redemption arcs and I am here for it”.

Speaking of redemption I still don’t like Matthias. I’m sorry but I just don’t. I get that he is important to many and that they like his relationship with Nina, but I just don’t have the patience for him and feel like Nina can do better. I still want him to get a redemption... but maybe not through a romance with the grisha woman he repeatedly slutshames, is bigoted towards and chokes at least once (twice if that SoC scene from book 1 happens). That being said this is just how I see him, so feel what ever you feel about him and ship to your heart’s content!

Alina’s journey through this season made complete sense to me. It hurt to see certain things, but they were necessary in my eyes. Seeing her go from this essentially insecure but brave girl to a manipulated pawn to an even stronger and more self reliant girl in spite of everything was amazing. It did feel like a well-written hero’s journey and I’m looking forward to seeing where she goes next.

Apparently a lot of book-readers don’t like Mal (and I am not here to change anyone’s mind about that) but the Mal I saw on the show was amazing. I actually kind of wish we had seen more of who he was outside of his relationship to Alina (f.ex. other flashbacks than the meadow, maybe something about any of his missions while separated from Alina pre-show), but I also loved what we got of him with Alina. We still got to see a guy who was brave, stubborn, flirtatious, a bit judgemental but with a strong sense of humour, and a lot of loyalty (to Alina but also to his friends). I can hardly wait to see what’s next for him.

Milo the goat. Where do I even begin. Not only did we get that Jesper-scene, but their farewell actually became a Chekhov’s gun for Mal in 1.07? Milo is the true hero of the season.

Speaking of 1.07 I loved the tent scene between Alina and the Darkling. She both got to be realistic about her feelings for the Darkling and stand up for herself and for others and call him out. The way I interpret the Darkling, he is the kind of villain who creates a saviour narrative around himself but cares more about power than anything else. He’ll say he’s doing everything to protect his people but is the first to kill the very people he claims to love. And Alina’s tent-speech really hammered that in for me.

I adore Baghra. Is she morally dubious? Yes. Was she incredibly mean to Alina during training to the point where it might have been excessive? Yes. Did she not take any of the Darkling’s bullshit and act as the proper mentor for Alina when the Darkling had said that he was going to train her? Yes. Am I kind of a Baghra stan now? I mean maybe.

The antler-collar was so evil and gross but from a visually narrative stand point it was perfect.

Also I still have no idea who David is but I want redemption for him too. Honestly I feel like half the supporting cast is gearing up for redemption arcs next season and I am excited for most of them.

Nina’s reaction when she hears Kaz on the boat? Priceless. Actually the whole boat scene from when she goes up on deck again to the cut back to the fold was priceless.

That being said the final scene had me even more ready for season 2.

Jesper kind of gave me messy period-fantasy James Bond? Does that make sense?

And Mal kind of gave me Lois Lane energy? As in he’s the mortal love interest that many assume is the hero/heroine’s weakness but actually functions as their emotional strength and inspiration? Am I reaching here or am I getting somewhere?

Mikhael and Dubrov. What a duo. Absolute madlads.

Also I’d like to see more Nadia if that is possible? Because the few scenes we had of her had me intrigued but then she sort of disappeared? Is she going to be important or was she just more of a temporary supporting character?

I entered this show a casual Six of Crows fan with mild interest in Kanej and I finished this season a mess. A mess who ships Kanej and Malina and Genya with that David guy even though they had about 30 seconds of screentime together and Zoya with redemption and Jesper with main-character status (hey we’re not getting Wylan until season 2 at least) and kind of those two Ravkan army guys and Nina with anyone else and Matthias with a better redemption storyline and the Darkling with karma! Also, a mess with a whole new set of comfort characters!

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dani-luminae · 3 years

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Lia’s Wings Inspirations, Pt. 3

Finalized details/designs

Again, some images/drawings found through Pinterest or Google. I don’t own them but I will credit sources where possible.

Lia’s wing coloration

Lia’s wings maintain their tricolored pattern - gold, pink, and white bands, as pictures above - whether she’s in her light-bird form or only summoned her wings to her human form. She gained this unique coloration when she became powerful enough to transform for the first time, facing Mal as a dragon. (Phoenix coloring page found by Google Images, colored with Cra-Z-Art colored pencils.)

Lia’s Wingspan and design

Lia’s wingspan is approximately twenty feet across when extended in human form. Reference picture here. Another reference picture in flight:

Yeah, her wings are definitely big. Because of the deep “elbow” bend in her wings, she’s able to fold her wings against her back so tightly that they can fold into her shoulders silhouette and practically disappear when seen from afar to the front. The feathers are so long that they drag on the ground when folded, long enough that they might even be mistaken for a feathered cape.

Lia doesn’t like holding her wings in so tightly, though, and will often carry them attentive but relaxed. Good thing they can appear and disappear whenever she wants, because otherwise Lia would probably have a lot of trouble maneuvering everyday life with her wings constantly present and tangible.

Also including @descendantofthesparrow’s art because it’s amazing and deserves to be seen! And she’s got Lia’s wing size pretty damn accurately.

Powers and abilities

Lia’s wings can function as a visual indication of power, something similar to Mal’s glowing green eyes. While Lia can use her light powers without needing to summon her wings every time, more often than not, she’ll summon her wings simply to have them. Lia takes great pride in her wings, and also great comfort, often wrapping herself up in them or using them to embrace and/or protect others that she cares about. She will often use them as a shield to protect herself or others.

Lia’s wings are basically indestructible, capable of repelling magic spells and even attacks from others with light powers like her own. While she prefers her feathers soft, and that’s their natural resting state, they can turn wicked sharp like daggers when she needs them too, and have been proven capable of slicing clothes and cutting into walls. They’re capable of carrying her into the air with ease, as well as Ben on at least one occasion, and she can even hover with them.

Lia is a masterful flyer, despite being a late bloomer (by her species’ standards, at least) in getting her wings.

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theamityelf · 4 years

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Ever notice how pretty much none of the characters in Descendants have narrative significance, and yet we like them anyway because we enjoy their personalities and relationships with each other and that’s completely fine?

I mean Doug? What was Doug doing, the whole series? Playing the trombone and then at some point also learning to play the guitar and being a funky little financial-advisor-or-something while doing it, that’s what. You go, Doug.

When was the last time Ben got to contribute a meaningful plot point? When he followed Mal to the Isle at the beginning of D2? Because from that point on, homie was functionally an object, just there to make sure Mal had the authority to do whatever she wanted. He’s literally “the crown”. But he’s also a sweet boy trying his best, and that is endearing!

What did Jane do in D3? Provide minor assistance to characters who would have no influence on the climax. What did she do in D2? Lift a curtain that could have been lifted by anyone in the king’s employ. But do we care about her? Yeah, because she’s bubbly and really competent at what she does.

Poor Jay spent the whole series actively trying to advance the plot, and they kept giving his moments to Mal regardless; he tried to be the one to get them into the museum, and he was the first person to verbally say “Hey maybe we should just stay in Auradon”, but all of his progress is constantly undone to make sure Mal is the only one whose decisions matter for the story. But Jay is still our boy!

Uma gets to have narrative significance, as a treat, because presumably she climbed out of the page and threatened the writers at sword-point, or else they succumbed under the sheer weight of her inherent charisma.

In general, though, the characters we like aren’t in the movie for pragmatic reasons; they’re there because people like them. Could I have enjoyed D2 and D3 without Doug? Easily, but I wouldn’t take his screen time away from his die-hard fans.

#disney descendants #doug son of dopey #king ben florian #jane daughter of fairy godmother #jay son of jafar

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hitchell-mope · 4 years

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(Third film. After “The Phoenix”. In Audrey’s bedroom she’s explaining what she knows to the vks)

Audrey:...and the last time I saw him he was getting out his violin. I’m sorry I can’t be of more help

Mal: no, thank you Audrey. I um I figured it’d be something like that

Harriet: you don’t wanna be doin that during a crisis

Uma: ahem notaeuphemism, notaeuphemism

Harriet: ohhhh

Harry: tch sounds like one though

Mal: alright. Both of you. Not a peep out of either of you two crackpots for the rest of the millennium

Uma: eh, sounds fair.

Mal: are you doing ok. Chad going crazy, it must be horrible for you

Evie: oh who cares. She’s probably the cause of it

Mal: Evie shut up

Audrey: she’s right. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t left I

Mal: what happened

Audrey: after what happened to you guys on the bridge. We went back to his room. He forbade me to see you guys or be friends with you any more. I tried to leave and then he grabbed my wrist and tried to get me to stay

Mal: I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna rip him apart limb from limb

Audrey: I read him the riot act. And I left. It’s my fault. If I’d stayed I could’ve stopped him

Mal: if you stayed. Then we’d be fighting you right now. And it not your fault. Chad’s problems are Chad’s problems. Not yours or anyone else’s

Jay: oh my god

Mal: what?

Jay: he wants her

Mal: huh?

Jay: he wants to be king. And he never forgave you for Ben dumping Audrey because she was being a swot to you. He’s like an equally pathetic and creepy version of harry. Psychotically devoted to who he thinks is the perfect woman

Mal: holy shit

Evie: well then we know hey we have to do.

Mal: no

Evie (blatantly ignoring her sister): we give her to chad. They both burn to death. We’re home free

Uma: I can’t believe I’m saying this but it could work

Mal: no it couldn’t. Because. A. Chad’s power mad. B. Even it could work then we’d still have a homicidal dark fairy on our hands.

Uma: shit you’re right. Ah well only one thing to do

Hadie: what’s that?

Uma: rifle through her shit while she’s in a depressive episode

(She starts doing just that. Pulling out books from shelves, tearing down clothes from the wardrobe, until she finds something of interest)

Audrey: um excuse me. That’s my diary

Uma: I know. That’s why I’m reading it.

Audrey: yeah but it’s really old. From a time in my life I’m not exactly proud of so if

Uma (reading and ignoring her please): “Eighth of March. They’re here. Poor Benny boo is too nice to see it but I know the truth. They want my throne. That little purple skidmark, the magic mop head, Mouthoff and that spindly freckle faced...” Woah, and you still wanna protect her after all this?

Evie: she’s Mal’s friend. Not ours. And even then. It’s only because Mal feels guilty

Uma (rifling through the pages): lets see now it’s gotta be somewhere here. Oh yeah. “Eighth of April. I can’t believe it. He dumped me. All because I was reading that stuck up little handbag the riot act. She’s got to have used a love potion because there’s no way in hell Ben would dump me for sowing one so poor and ugly. At least I’ve got chad as a fallback. That little witch has gotten too comfortable. It might be time to shake things up as it were”. So how’d ya do it?

Mal: do what?

Uma: trap lil beasty boy. Cause there’s no way in hell he jumped you willingly

Mal: why the fuck would I spell Ben? Who the fuck do you think I am? You?

Harry: what’s that supposed mean?

Jay: it means you hypnotised Ben before the cotillion last year. Or have you forgotten about that?

Harry: cut me some slack alright? Sometimes I can’t remember what happened yesterday. Which for me in fact it was actually. See as I lost a year of me life

Carlos: oh boo fricking hoo dickbrain

Uma: oh look there’s more. “Tenth of June. I’m an idiot. A pink frilly stupid idiot. I was completely wrong about Mal and the others. She saved my life. I tried to kill her and she saved my life. How could I be so stupid. They had no choice but they chose to save me when they could have let me burn. I have to make things right. It’s the only way”. Damn Ophelia. When do you jump into the lake?

Audrey: it’s um ahem that’s the last diary entry. I didn’t feel like making another one.

Uma: then you wouldn’t mind if it do this

(She frisbees the dusty into the empty fireplace and sets it alight. Audrey runs up to stop her but is held fast by the hook sisters)

Audrey: please, please. They’re my mother’s diaries. It was a for my fourteen birtday

Uma: oh yeah? Well do you know what I got for my fourteenth birthday? A triple unpaid shift at the restaurant where I work for a roof over my head.

Mal: Uma! Leave her alone

Jay: yeah she’s ignorant. She doesn’t know what it’s like over there. And she can’t be held accountable for what Adam did

Uma: you all can (she grabs Audrey by the throat) now. What do you suggest we do with her highness?

Cj: how about we make sure her incessant prattling is stopped forever more?

Harry: ooh good choice.

Harriet: but how do we silence her?

Uma: hmmmmm...OOH! I know. Harry your pocket watch please

(He hands her the watch and she throws it into the mirror above the mantlepiece through which it disappears)

Uma: see ya feckers

Mal: NO WAIT NO!

(Uma freezes the other Vks with magic, chucks Audrey through the mirror, sending her falling through the blackness and teleports her and the hooks to the same place. This is when “this is Halloween” happens. After the song. Carlos blurs for a second and the spell ends)

Carlos: of course. Now what to do first. Hmmmmm. Right! Gil. C’mon buddy. Wakey wakey

(He double taps Gil and the shoulder and the blonde starts moving again)

Gil: owww. We have to save her don’t we?

Carlos: unfortunately. Yes

Gil: shit.

Carlos: tally ho my friend

(They both jump into the mirror and land in a watch)

Gil: where are we?

Carlos: a pocket watch. Your ex’s pocket watch I believe judging by how it’s kaput

Gil: oh yeah. Yah um. James kept smashing it so he stopped asking me to fix it after the fifth time it was thrown at his head

Carlos: that explains so much yet absolves absolutely nothing

Gil: stands to reason

(Audrey’s muffled screams can be heard from their right)

Carlos: this way?

Gil: yep

(They head off in a northern direction and sure enough they’re Audrey. Bound to a clockwork chair. Mouth gaffes with tape. Carlos almost releases her but Uma steps out of the darkness followed by the hooks)

Uma: I wouldn’t do that if I were you

Carlos: really? You wouldn’t do this if you were me? Well if I were you then I wouldn’t kidnap the friend of the future queen

Harry: back off you son of a bitch

Carlos: kill me and we both go down you skinny ass rooster brain

Doug: oh my god they got you too

(Everyone turns around to see Doug standing there looking downright haunted)

Carlos: Doug what are you doing here

Doug: mirrors are connected.

Carlos: right. Wanna help us free Audrey from the grim grinning ghosts?

Doug: eh sure why not. I’ve got nothing better to do until the spells broken.

Gil: yay. The normies are back in business. Shame Lon-Lon isn’t here though

Doug: who calls ya normies?

Gil: you had nightmares. Lots of them

Doug: those ice packs were from you?

Gil: yeah. When people have nightmares they get incredibly heated.

Carlos: this is true. Jay ices his hands when I have nightmares

Harry: hey, dipshit! Are we gonna talk or are we gonna obligate you?

Doug: it’s obliterate dickless. Not obligate

Harry: I don’t care

Audrey: *muffled sounds of protests*

Doug: yeah we’re not on you right now

Carlos: lemme talk to Uma. C’mon captain

(They walk a little way away from the others)

Uma: what?

Carlos: you don’t wanna do this

Uma: oh? Why not?

Carlos: because it interferes with your plans Uma. No matter how many times you say to the contrary. We know you. 9 times out of ten your need to one up and hurt Mal outweigh your desire to help the island. But I’m telling you. Let your altruism win out instead of your sadism. Not killing Audrey might not be fun. Believe. Jay Evie and I have fantasised about it many a time. But right here right now. Your best bet is to let bygones be bygones. Capiche?

Uma: no. Still gonna killer her

Carlos: I thought you’d say that

(This is when “I will not bow” happens. After the song Harry hurls the debris at Carlos who explodes it into to dust)

Carlos: so you really do have magic. I thought Evie siphoned it off?

Doug: it’s the “mother hauling a car off her child” reaction. Uma was in danger and Harry reacted instinctively

Carlos (sarcastically): perfect

Harry: and now, I’m gonna finish what I started in the alleyway

(His eyes glow blood red and he charges at Carlos. Who just peruses a few buttons on his wrist so a force fiend forms in front of him knocking the pirate off course. Harry roars in anger and his hair ignites in blood red flame. Gil punches him in the face and his hair goes out)

Carlos (utterly disgusted): oh. My. God.

(The brown is Harris hair has burned away to black)

Carlos: what the fuck. Is-is that natural or is it the ember?

Harry: you what?

Harriet: your hair. It’s black again.

Harry: no my hairs brown

Cj: no brother dear. Your hair is black. Again. Like it hasn’t been since you asked Uma to lather it in boot polish when you were six

Harry (absolutely traumatised): no! NO IT AINT

Doug: yes. Yes it is.

(He uses the selfie function on his phone camera as a mirror. Harry takes one look and screams in melancholy and assumes the foetal position)

Carlos: what the fuck

Cj (long suffering sigh): you see, my siblings hair is naturally black. Harriet is our fathers favourite. Harry is not. So Harry asked Uma to dye his hat brown when he was six. And hasn’t looked back since.

Carlos: and you

Cj: I’m a natural blonde. I’m Gil’s cousin. His mother’s the middle bimbette. My mother is the youngest bimbette.

Carlos: we would not be out of place in Storybrooke.

Doug and Gil: nope

Carlos: so! Here’s what we’re gonna do. Uma, you and the tweedle twits are gonna come with me back to the home side. Gil, I can count on you to untie miss priss?

Gil (cheerfully): Roger! Doug, you can come back with us

Carlos and Doug: no, absolutely not

Doug: I need need to stay here in the mirror world until my body wakes up. If I go through with you guys I’ll die.

Carlos: your body and mind are safe. You might need to hide. If you stay here. Evie will most certainly kill Audrey

(Audrey screams in protest)

Carlos: oh we all know she’ll blame you. She hates you enough as it is already. And if...fucks sake I can’t take you seriously looking like that (he rips the tape off her mouth ignoring her screams of pain) that’s much better. If she sees Doug in the Moore she will blame you and she will kill you

Audrey (conceding): that’s fair

Carlos: now. Let’s see, how am I going to do this. Oh! I know!

(He uses his exosuit to shove the girls through the mirror, not noticing Harry using his own magic to root Doug to the spot. Gil hoists up both Harry and Audrey and, together with Carlos jumps back to the real world. Once there Carlos makes Uma reverse the spell which she does without complaint)

Uma: you of course realise you are incredibly dangerous to people with that exosuit?

Carlos: That was the idea. Gil could you put Audrey on the bed please

Mal: what happened?

Carlos: oh the usual. Uma let her instincts get in the way of logical thinking.

Mal: of course

Evie: Doug? Doug! Oh my god. Doug wait right there

Carlos: shield Audrey

Mal: what

Carlos: trust me on this mom. This not going to end well

Harry (aside to Uma): watch this

(He uses magic to bring Doug, who’s futilely trying to get away, closer to the glass)

Evie (climbing up on the mantelpiece and tapping on the glass): Doug. Honey I’m here. What..what’s wrong? Why can’t I get through? Let me through. Let me through. Dammit let me through. Let me go to him for fucks sake let me through. (She starts banging on the glass with her fists) LET ME THROUGH. LEMME THROUGH. LET ME GO TO HIM LET ME THROUGH! PLEASE (her eyes start glowing and the mirror starts to crack) LET ME THROUGH LET ME THROUGH! (She starts sobbing). LET ME THROUGH. LET ME GO TO HIM. PLEAE

Carlos: jay get her, now!

(Jay lifts her up by the waist, still screaming and crying, and pulls her away from the mirror. Doings hands remain on the glass where hers were)

Evie (still crying): why can’t I why can’t why can’t I go to him? It should be easy I have magic Uma’s not that much more powerful than me I should be able to get through why can’t I get through? (She stops crying, jay lets her go and her voice evens out) you. You did this. He’s doing this because of you. It’s all YOUR FAULT

(She launches at Audrey intent on scratching the princesses eyes out but Jay and Gil grab her just in time)

Evie: LET ME KILL HER

Mal: no!

Evie: IF SHE DIES HE’LL STOP

Mal: but Maleficent won’t. Do you really want to take that chance?

Evie (extremely reluctantly): n...no

Mal: ok then. Put her down guys. And just where the hell are you going?

Uma (hand on the door handle): I can’t stay here. I. I just can’t. (Harry makes his way to her). And nobody! Nobody. Nobody, follow me

Harriet: you heard her Har. Stay here

(Uma leaves the room. She magically deadbolts and soundproofs the door and then sinks to the floor crying her eyes out. That is until she senses someone approaching her)

Uma (thickly): go away. There’s an attack on this dump. People are dropping like bats. Find a nice soft spot to collapse if you know what’s good for you

Adam: I know there’s an attack on the school dear. I’m part of it you see. Don’t bother getting up. This will be over quickly. I just wanted to tell you that what’s about to happen is entirely deserved.

Uma: you’re him aren’t you? Beast

Adam: THAT’S NOT MY... (he takes a deep breath). That’s not my name. My name is Adam

Uma: yeah don’t care. To us you’re the beast. The bastard boogeyman who damned to the island

Adam: like I said it was deserved

Uma (scoffing): huh! Deserved? Really? You really think what you did to us was deserved? How fucking delusional can you get?

Adam: no more delusional than you thinking that I can be stoppped.

Uma: what did she offer you?

Adam: my kingdom back. And your kind flung back to the scrap heap where you all belong.

Uma: not if I have anything to do about it

Adam (scoffing): what can you do. You’re a child who’s oh so very far from home. And I’m a man with years of experience.

Uma: you’re a crackpot, corrupt politician. And I have magic that you cannot even begin to comprehend

Adam: is that so?

Uma: damn straight. I can tear you apart without even touching you.

Adam: care to put that to the test?

Uma: your move. Five paces?

Adam: of course

(They move to opposite sides of the corridor. This is when “calling all the monsters” happens. After the song Adam slashes off one of her tentacles and she falls to the ground screaming in pain. While all this is going on Harry is desperately trying to open the door)

Hadie: Harry it’s no use. She’s deadbolted it. It won’t be lifted until she chooses to.

Harry: there has to be a way. Use me as a battering ram

Carlos: nobody here wants to touch you

Harry: have you got any right ideas?

Jay: it’s bright ideas. And we don’t want you to be happy so why would we help you

(At the mantlepiece Evie’s got an idea)

Mal: there’s no guarantee that’d work Evie

Evie: I have to do something. I can’t just leave him there. He shouldn’t be alone. Please if blood or, or family mean anything to you then help me make sure he’s not alone.

Mal: I’m doing this for Doug and Doug only. Let’s see here (she flips through the spell book) damn. What you want to do counts as love. Sorry.

Hadie: what’s counts as love

Mal: Evie wants to send part of her consciousness into the mirror to keep Doug company. But her love for him is the driving factor. And Maleficent ripped out and burned the last one hundred pages of the book contains love spells because real feelings need to be there for it to work and according to her I’m not worthy of love.

Cj: she’s a smart lady

(Mal clicks her fingers, CJ’s leg snaps in two and she collapses in pain)

Hadie: restoration spell?

Mal: at the coronation. It didn’t work.

Hadie: May I?

Mal: go ahead.

(Hadie takes the book, flips it and mutters a spell in Ancient Greek. The book glows bright steely grey then returns to normal. He opens the book and the pages are restored)

Evie (pulling him into a bear hug): thank you thank you thank you

Mal: you’re gonna have to do it. The spell is incredibly painful. It says here part of you has to be physically ripped out for it to work. And our friendship is tenuous at best. So it’s best if you do it. Audrey get in the crawl space. Jay shield Gil. Carlos c’mere. The blowback could be dangerous to mortals

Cj: pardon me for asking but what of my siblings and I?

Mal: I don’t care about you

Evie: if this doesn’t work?

Hadie: then Doug will remain asleep until Maleficent is defeated

Evie (voice breaking): then dont fuck it up. Please

Hadie (chuckling sadly): I promise I’ll try not to. Ready

Evie: do it

(He takes the ember, puts it in the middle of her forehead and starts chanting in Ancient Greek. Evie starts to glow bright blue. Then she starts screaming in pain. Blue light shoots out of her hands and face. Harriet gets thrown into the wall followed by Cj. Harry, still trying to wrest the door open, gets thrown into a large Ming vase. Jay, Mal, Carlos, Hadie, Evie and Gil stay standing. Celia remains on the bed. The light stops. Evie nearly collapses but Hadie catches her)

Jay: wow. Is that?

Evie: he’s what I see yeah

(A ghostly version of Doug’s standing in front of them. He’s dressed like a vk. Everything about him from skinn to clothes to eyes is completely blue all over and glowing)

Evie: go through the mirror. Go to Doug. Be whatever he needs you to be. I’ll be fine. Just go to Doug. Now.

(Ghostly Doug turns to smoke and floats through the mirror. His form changes to Evie in her coronation dress. The front of her loosely braided and pinned back. Real Doug looks completely shocked)

Evie: oh! Ohhhh dear. This isn’t what you wanted. Do you want me in jeans? I can wear jeans if you’d prefer. Or is the hair not right. I know! It’s the shoes. Haha. Wrong shoes

(Doug pulls her into a hug which she returns relievedly)

Doug: you look perfect. You always do. But how

Evie: magic. I’m not really her. I’m just part of her consciousness.

Doug: of course.

Evie: do you really like the dress?

Doug: yes. It’s Evie’s favourite so its my favourite

Evie: you’re incredibly sweet did you know that?

Doug: no.

Evie: why not?

Doug: because nobody’s ever said that to me before

Evie: well you are. Sweet brave kind and

Doug: I’m sorry. I tried to protect the twins and I’m sorry. Maleficent got to them. I failed.

Evie: what Maleficent and chad do isn’t your fault.

Doug: I—

Evie: she knows. Trust me. She knows

Doug: it’s really difficult to say

Evie: I know. That’s what makes it important

Doug (chuckling): so uh. What do we do now?

Evie: we wait. We wait until we win.

Doug: and until then.

Evie: we could

Doug: no.

Evie: damn. Worth a try

Doug: always.

Evie: how about a dance. You can practice here and wow Evie later

Doug: sounds good to me

Evie: you lead?

Doug: I’ve offered to let Evie lead but she always insists on letting me lead

Evie: she’s a smart girl

Doug: yes. Yes she is. May I have this dance

Evie: yes sir you may

(This is when “come what may” happens. As this happens Uma’s pained screams undo the soundproofing spell she put on the door alerting everyone else to her predicament)

#disney descendants #zendaya!mal

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turingtestr · 4 years

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mobile post of all my information for the anon who wanted a mobile rules / bio. i could make a google docs but i’m burnt out. please also note, i haven’t even GLANCED at my bio i wrote for elijah since 2018, so uh... i should probably do that. sorry if it’s bad.

ONE. due to the nature of my roleplaying style, there will absolutely be mature themes here and there on this blog. all and any mature themes that involve sexual topics of the nsfw variety will only be written with muses that are 18+. as for those people that are 18+ that follow me, i fully understand if you do not want to write any nsfw content, and if any threads lead to that we can fade to black. just ask me, i’m fairly easy going and more than happy to make people feel welcome. it is not a requirement to rp nsfw content with me and i will never force anyone to do that. !

TWO. this is a selective/private blog. i really only roleplay with mutuals, however you’re more than welcome to reply to any of my open starters if i specify that you can but just know i might not reply because i (1) don’t know your muse, (2) have zero muse for the reply and will get to it later, (3) have no interest in the thread, or (4) am uncomfortable with something on your blog. roleplaying is also a HOBBY for me. i work full time and sometimes i genuinely cannot reply fast. if you hassle me to reply to things, i will not want to roleplay with you and it will turn me off from roleplaying with you completely. in fact, if you harrass me to reply to threads, i will automatically unfollow you because i’m not about that life of being pushed to reply to things. if you spam my follow button to try and get my attention, that will result in a soft block on your behalf. please don’t test my patience. if you do not have your ooc name on your page i will not follow you, due to me thinking hiding your ooc alias is shady and sketchy af.

THREE. i love shipping and i love roleplaying so much. this is not a single ship blog and none of the ships i portray are at the same time (unless further discussed with muns, of course).MY PRIMARY CHLOE SHIPPING PARTNER IS @TURINGTESTEE, which means that if kamski mentions chloe in a verse, he's most likely talking about this chloe. if there are any verses that kamski is going to have one single ship, i will make sure to let people know that in the verse description section once i make it. otherwise, my muse is a free for all. if i do have mains, which will be listed, they are just the people i will reply to the most, however, i won't actually limit myself to only roleplaying with them and i hope my mains respect and are comfortable with that.

FOUR. tagging triggers is something that means a lot to me as i am not comfortable with NEEDLES OR PUPPETS on my dashboard so i blacklist needles tw and puppets tw. i know it’s weird but hey, we all have our things. please let me know if you need anything tagged- even if i don’t personally follow you. you deserve a clean and safe dashboard to roleplay in. WARNING.

FIVE.anon hate will be deleted on the spot. no exceptions. i don’t care about your petty feelings and i won’t tolerate them in the slightest. i’m not here to entertain horrible people’s opinions of myself. constructive criticisms are allowed, but at the respect of myself reblogging a meme asking for it specifically.

SIX. mutuals are allowed to ask for my wire or discord, since i use both and would love to rp on both. i also play dead by daylight on ps4, so if you’d be down to game as well, feel free to hit me up there too! overwatch on ps4 is ITSGEOFFREY so you can add me there too.

SEVEN. i very rarely will send in passwords, as i do not require it and i should not have to be tested on your blog to be allowed to roleplay with someone. usually if you have a password, i genuinely just didn’t think to look for it and i apologize if this upsets you but you probably won’t see any from me.

EIGHT. please take into consideration while dealing with kamski that he has high signs of NPD & a huge god complex.

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BIOGRAPHY

NAME: Elijah Dean Kamski ALIASES: Eli, Lij, Boss, Kamski GENDER: Male AFFILIATION: Cyberlife Technologies, currently retired AGE: 36

THE START

there's many days where the kamski family would have a bit of struggles, as elijah grew up. he never knew much about his father, seeing as his father passed when he was a very young boy — no more than six. he'd never grown to know too much about him, and his mother didn't overly want to share about him, so it was safe to say the woman had a reason for not telling elijah and that was that.

growing up with a single mother who had severe epilepsy, elijah tried his very hardest to make his mother's life as easy as possible. school days would be very short considering he'd go straight home from school in order to watch after his mother. some days with his mother, depending on the medication the doctors had recommended her, would be better than others. she always appreciated her son's committment to being with her and he was determined to make life easy on the two of them. using the money she got from the state, she'd try to urge her son go into extra cirricular activiies he wanted to do, however he only dismissed the ideas, claiming that he'd rather be home. he'd use the money to spend on textbooks, wanting to develop his own version of a Vagus nerve stimulation device. one that would make sure to surge with electrical pulses before his mother even remotely had to move herself to activate the device. computer engineering was his goal, and he'd stop at nothing to get through that.

as life continued on, elijah continued to shove his head into books and continuously study. he pushed through high school faster than anyone had expected, at age ELEVEN he had shown his studies to multipile colleges, showing his theories on how to better create medical devices.

THE CHANGE

the university of colbridge had been a struggle for elijah, being the youngest student there. studying medical engineering was easy, and he had decided to double major in computer engineering as well, to perhaps attempt to integrate the two. though school was difficult, the hardest part was being away from his mother. the school had refused to let him travel back and forth, saying that freshmen had to stay on campus as apart of regulations and requirements from the state. when he started college, his mother had decidded upon asking the state for a caregiver- on the off chance that something did happen. with the VNS that was already implanted in her, she was able to have a job during the day, but the caretaker was supposed to just oversee her during the nights. it settled eli's anxiety about his mother a little bit. four months into his freshman year, eli had woken up to a call from the san antonio police, letting him know that his mother had been rushed to the hospital after having a grand mal seizure and hitting her head on their marble counters. apparently the caretaker assigned to look after his mother hadn't even shown up that night. he quickly rushed home, terrified what had happened.

something, however that night had turned elijah into a bitter person. into someone against humanity. though his mother had survived the seizure, things weren't the same for either of them. after knowing his mother's caretaker had ABANDONED her, elijah had fully decided to go more into engineering to create a way for humans to be more reliable. what was more reliable than humanity? MACHINES. something that would always obey. obedient machines that had a purpose and a task and would see it through. dropping fully out of medical engineering, elijah settled for computer science and engeineering instead. the utter drive to create a better human than humans themselves was so strong that by the age sixteen, elijah had worked together with a team of classmates to create the first medical assistant androids. REVOLUTIONARY KICKSTARTER model 100, or RK for short. RK100 was born and tested on his mother, who seeemed quite uneasy, but only wanted to support her son.

ENTER CYBERLIFE

though it wasn't perfect, the ark series took off. mainly piquing interest in san diego, california. the backbones of the mega-billion dollar company that would be founded by elijah kamski and his cohorts suddenly had at least three hundred backers trying to support the small business after seeing what a success the RK100 was at being not only a companion for his mother, but also how helpful the RK was at it's job. the medical caretakers were able to do so much, and suddenly with the money that was being thrown at the group, elijah became more than enthused with power. hungry for it, almost.

making more medical related androids were being highly requested, and the team set out to create diffrent functions for androids, trying to perfect everything.

taking into consideration his mother — his finest mentor and most trusted support, and what she thought of the androids, he sought out to consult with his old AI professor, Amanda Stern, on how to make the androids a bit more lifelike. It was hard, at least for what his mother admitted, for a human to trust a machine that looked like a machine to help themselves out through life. upon her advice, eli threw himself into work, the team of cyberlife growing into a business, and then a wide scale company alongside elijah's work. no matter what, the man was the front of the company, having done the majority of the coding and research in what brought the androids to life. the company sought after targeting the cheapest land developments in the united states in order to make their headquarters and warehouses, bringing CYBERLIFE to DETROIT, MICHIGAN where it currently resides.

it takes kamski four years after founding cyberlife to come out with a brand new appearance for his androids. something human like after struggling and struggling to engineer the perfect components to theorize biological functions. this equiptment created became biocompotenents, but it still wasn't enough to make thes he was creating look HUMAN. but after all the struggles and finally figuring out a way to regulate something akin to blood into the android's system, elijah kamski in the year 2022 releases the RT REVOLUTIONARY TURING model; a personal assistant to elijah kamski that uses the alias ' CHLOE '. Cyberlife has been thurst into the spotlight and once again Elijah Kamski realizes that these advancements in the world have honestly made people envious. the public demands the rights to these androids and while he still is bitter over humanity and the lack of reliabilty that humans provide for the world, he obliges. Cyberlife goes public with their androids and the public are now able to put a price tag on androids.

THE REVOLUTION

the world that assumes elijah kamski is nothing but a greedy, power-hungry boss of a CEO for cyberlife overlooks one important fact: he still wants revenge on the world. his mother passes on at the age 43, a few years before his greatest mentor amanda stern passes. the loss of both role models awakens a vengeful force in elijah kamski. one that wants to remind the world that mortality is relevant for all. cyberlife has created over thousands of models, all for different functions and he looks upon his kingdom with hopeful eyes as well as bitterness. humanity has become less reliant. they've become lazier. androids have become the working force, for the most part, and while elijah sees that as a positive note because it is moving forward away from the laziness and unreliability of humanity — the CEO is fully aware that his androids are becoming more and more human like the more and more they develop. the deviant base code is never once touched. always overlooked by cyberlife developers who dare not touch the work of the first working android made by elijah kamski himself. while he's aware he, himself, is mortal just like the rest of humanity, seeing his creations become sentient, to rise up against the laziness and unreliable humanity that he lives among has been his goal. he just awaits the REVOLUTIONARY KICKSTARTER 200 to actually get pushed to the brink of going through his code.

now it's just a game of waiting to see who pushes who, and who comes up on top. it's always a delight to play god.

THE SIBLING ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

i'm not going to be writing a brand new biography for the gavin / elijah brothers universe, but i need to work out how they can be related with my current bio, or i might just go off of a gavin's biography. shrug emote.

#〉 your save file has become corrupted. / OUT OF CHARACTER

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malafight · 5 years

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things aren’t so great right now, y’all

i owe various institutions nearly $500 and have $2 in quarters to my name at the moment. i don’t get paid for another week and a half, but i’m getting fuck all for hours and by that point i’ll owe even more money, so there’s no climbing out of this hole any time soon

i’m missing two of my most important meds, and won’t even be able to get the prescriptions for another three weeks or more, lord knows if i’ll be able to afford them.

mal needs the rest of his shots and to get neutered, very soon -- something which i had the income to take care of when i adopted him, but my hours got cut horrendously and as such now i do not

i have a pile of rotting trash bags on my porch that i cannot afford to take to the dump

i’m not even sure if i’ll be getting my tax return, because i owe so much to the state for student loans. and even if i do get it, i don’t know when that’ll be, and it won’t be enough to cover even half of what i need right now

my dental health is so bad that i’m afraid of going to the dentist to even find out how much i have wrong with me and how much it’ll cost. i’m in constant pain from cavities and broken teeth, and brushing/flossing/mouthwash is sensory hell on top of painful on top of not having the spoons to do it in the first place

i’m stressed and want to cry 24/7. i’m barely medicated and barely functional. i keep swinging between too much sleep and not enough. most of my food is ramen or from the freezer or a can.

i’m trying to get the last commission im working on finished so i can repost my commission info without feeling guilty, but even writing is too much for me to handle most of the time without my proper meds

i’m really not in a good place right now.

my birthday is on saturday and i have no friends in the city to spend it with. i don’t even have the money to treat myself to a nice meal.

if any of yall feel up to helping, my commissions are always open, but turnaround will be slow until i can get my meds again. or you could sponsor a fic/chapter and get a shout-out and a message posted with it. or, if you’re feeling generous, i’ve got a paypal.me page;;; if you leave your tumblr url with any donation i’ll drop by your blog and draw you a doodle as a thank you???

im sorry im just. things aren’t going great and words are hard. i haven’t even been able to talk to folks all that often now because i’m a mess of anxiety and stress. i kinda just wanna become one with the void, yknow?? i don’t know how i’m gonna pull out of this, so right now, all i can hope for is that i hold on long enough to get my meds back and hope that proper brain chemical levels come with a better understanding of how to start fixing my situation

thank you for taking the time to read this. i love you and hope you are doing well. i know how hard it is to scroll through tumblr and see people in bad situations like this, so i’ve been holding off on posting it at all, but i’m just at the point now where i don’t think i have any other options. i’m so sorry.

#pan shut the fuck up #signal boost #commissions

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moistwithgender · 5 years

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Monthly Media Roundup (April 2019)

April was a bit of a disaster month for me, and as such I didn’t get much of anything finished. Old wounds got reopened, I was sick all month, I had an unavoidably bad birthday, and a lifelong pet died. I didn’t engage with a lot of things, and mostly slept. I did play a lot of Breath of the Wild, but seeing as I didn’t finish that, I’m not including it yet. Here’s the things I did finish:

Games:

Blaster Master Zero (Switch): I actually first bought and finished this two years ago, and since the sequel has come out I decided to replay it with the Shovel Knight DLC character. While I genuinely like this game (I 100%’d it both times), I was not really in a good spot to enjoy this playthrough, and just kinda mindlessly pushed through it for nine consecutive hours, beating it in that single sitting. Playing as a DLC character removes the story, which is fine since they’re intended for replays, though I wonder if it added to my emotional disconnect. SK doesn’t receive fall damage, and so the precariousness of navigating the world outside of the highly-mobile tank doesn’t exist nearly as much, though the trade-off is that SK’s combat abilities in dungeons are hindered by an overall lack of range. The game is still rather easy, though, so I can’t say any particular level cadences or combat scenarios carved their way into my memory.

To the game’s credit, though, the things that are good about it are still good. If you have an attachment to the original NES game, or an interest in retro properties, or just want a nice, breezy platformer, it’s very good. It’s interesting in how it repurposes the altered plot of the US version of the original game (where it was its most popular), including even the plot of the little novelization that came out because Gotta Get Those Video Game Kids to Read Something. It has a fake out ending, and if you 100% the maps it unlocks a final map that is genuinely surreal enough to be the highlight of the game. Despite my sighing, it is a genuinely good time, and I’m very curious to play the new game, somewhat hilariously titled Blaster Master Zero 2.

Anime:

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I chewed through the last four episodes of this so that I could say I finally finished the season. I didn’t watch the post-season recap episode. TenSura (the abbreviation of the Japanese title, which I will use to refer to it because satisfyingly abbreviating the english title is impossible) is not a very good show, but for about half the length of the 24-episode first season, it fascinates due to how it functions at all. TenSura is an isekai show, much like the other isekai shows, where a person dissatisfied with their life is brutally murdered (usually by a truck. USUALLY by a truck) and is reborn in a fantasy world that coincidentally gives them an absurd advantage over other people, allowing them to live out all the decadence they felt they deserved in the real world. If this sounds like the most boring kind of wish fulfillment possible to you, that’s because it is. It’s also extremely popular with consumers. Which is interesting! I think the isekai boom is indicative of how late-stage capitalism everyday people the world over, that we envision or escape to worlds where your efforts actually return appropriate reward. A bonkers concept, to be sure.

In TenSura, the formula doesn’t stray much. The main character is a man in his 30s (?) who has never fucked and gets knifed to death while HEROICALLY saving a coworker from a plot-irrelevant stabber dude who was running down the sidewalk with his knife out for no reason besides Main Character Needs an Inciting Incident Now. It’s actually pretty weirdly violent for the start to a show that is almost entirely light-hearted. Dude dies, his coworker dumps his hard drive in the bath out of respect (lol), and he wakes up in a fantasy world that works on videogame logic, including loot, skill trees, and class upgrades. He is reborn as an adorable slime a la Dragon Quest, but the personality traits he had in his previous life (and I guess his choice of dying words) scan to obscenely convenient passive abilities that ensure he’s not only invincible, but will never stop experiencing exponential power growth. Also he immediately makes friends with a final boss-level dragon and then eats him. That’s how he makes friends in this sometimes.

I’m being very cynical here, but the core narrative loop (and it IS a loop) of the series kept my interest for longer than I expected. Rimuru (the name of the reborn protagonist) goes somewhere he hasn’t been, astonishes the nearby (sometimes violent) inhabitants with his overpowered abilities, makes friends with them, and then improves their lives with community. Goblins, direwolves, orcs, demon lords. It stacks and builds upon itself to absurd degrees but it’s interesting that in a genre loaded with very problematic stories of disenchanted dudes finally getting the underage harem they’ve always wanted (aaaaAAAAAAAAA) that the main concept of this series is improving the lives of others and giving them closure for the ways life has hurt them. Even if. Sometimes that hurt was the main character’s doing? Like Rimuru absolutely decapitates a direwolf leader and then adopts the pack who from then on absolutely LOVE the dude. Also one of Rimuru’s abilities is that if he gives a monster a name, it class upgrades, which is generally and reasonably seen as a life improvement. Though, these class upgrades are almost always decidedly “less-tribal” or outright human, which smacks of some imperialist thinking. It’s also something I’m sure I never questioned in old videogames growing up. Meanwhile, there’s also a bit with a woman who came from Japan during that one really bad war, you know the one, and the closure she’s given as she’s dying is handled with actual delicacy. It’s a weird series! It’s only a shame to me that after most of the first season, there was less to talk about. Sometime after the halfway mark, you realize the show is never going to maintain tension for more than half an episode, that all problems are solvable (yes, even terminally ill children), and that the show isn’t going anywhere you can’t predict. It’s a checklist show, and the plot points are a list of achievements being checked off one episode at a time.

I don’t think I would actually recommend the show to most people, despite how popular it is. It’s not a great show, but it does weird enough things for a while that it generates conversations. Which is honestly pretty okay. It’s a pretty okay show. Also, Rimuru is effectively nonbinary (with he pronouns), and that’s… somethin’! (24 episodes, finished 4/17/19, Crunchyroll (Funimation also now has the dub I think? Clips I saw were pretty weird, Rimuru seemed to be characterized differently.))

Manga:

Nejimaki Kagyu Vol 1: You would think a manga that immediately starts with a reference to Phantom Blood would be, well, at least interesting.

Okay maybe invoking a beloved work doesn’t actually mean anything. I just wanted to share this blatant callback. Nejimaki Kagyu is a seinen manga about a highschool teacher whose tragically cursed to, uh, have all teenage girls fall in love with him. And the highschool-age childhood friend of his who has spent her whole life obsessed with him and learning super martial arts to defend his chastity. Her supers make her clothes explode.

…

I take no joy in this travesty.

Anyway, uh. The biggest tragedy here is that the art is actually really good, though the paneling is regularly squished around to hilarious degree. Let’s look at some pages and then forget this manga exists forever.

That horror face is how I feel the entire series should be portraying itself. The manga has a distinct lack of self-awareness.

The fan translation for this series appears to have dropped off halfway through and hasn’t been picked up for years, and based on reviews I saw on MAL talking about the directionlessness of the later volumes, I wonder if the translator got fed up with the series. Oh well!

Kyou no Asuka Show Vol 1: Oh god damn it I just got done with talking about a series about ogling the youth.

BLEASE STOP

Okay so. Kyou no Asuka Show, or “Today’s Asuka Show” is an older slice of life manga by the same author I mentioned previously who is doing an edutainment series about people working in a condom factory. Innocently-minded women in comedically lewdish situations appears to be his whole bag. I think Asuka is pretty charming, but I also know she’s designed to appeal to my monkey male gaze. Obliviously sexy is very much a mood, and in a more adult context I would be all for it. There have been a few chapters where I find myself at odds with the wisdom the author is attempting to impart, sometimes through Asuka’s father, who works as an adult photographer, and doesn’t want his daughter involved in anything that could cause her to be ogled. Like, that’s already something that requires a lot of unpacking in the modern day. Aforementioned wisdom sometimes takes the form of Asuka doing something stupid and innocent and ripe for objectifying, like wearing a school swimsuit in a rainstorm. Or she’ll work a job as a cute girl courier and inadvertently turn a shut-ins life around. Situations where, if it were in real life, I’d think “wow that’s weird and charming,” but by being a work of intentional authorship, it inherently loses some of that innocence, and becomes something well-meaning but problematic. Is that the second time I’ve used the word “problematic” in this post? Is this 2014?

I may continue reading this, but I really can’t recommend it to most people I know in 2019 without several disclaimers and also without probably getting some side eye. I think it’s worth a couple chapters to feel out what its doing before you decide whether you can siphon the charm from it, or would rather move on to something else.

Me enjoying myself when this manga tries to suddenly get up to some shit.

Blue Period Vol 1: This is the last thing on my list, because I don’t want to expand this list beyond the three mediums I’ve already assigned to it. Also, I actually finished this May 1st, but I wanted to talk about it now.

If I had the power to actually get people to engage with a specific work once per month, Blue Period would easily be the one I pick. That doesn’t mean as much when all the other things I finished this month were conflicted experiences, but I really think everyone would benefit from this series. Or at least anyone with even a passing interest in visual arts.

Blue Period (named for Picasso’s Blue Period) is about a highschool delinquent who has a knack for studying, a safe social life, and no interests in pretty much anything. He’s on the road to do fine in his life, and he doesn’t question it much, but that’s it, until he discovers art and realizes it’s the only way he’s ever been able to truly communicate his feelings. It changes everything about him, for more emotionally satisfying reasons, but also riskier ones. He only has one year of highschool to go to decide what he’s doing with his life, and Japan has a very strict education system. You’re not really allowed to just “get around” to things.

Apologies in advance if you’re tired of me spamming full pages but I really do wanna show this off. This is another series with an educational angle to it, though the emphasis is definitely more rooted in a personal narrative of growth. The explanations of art practice and the functionality of exercises and tools are both very informative and relevant to the characters, never feeling like the story is taking a backseat to explain. The characters are, hilariously, everyone I’ve ever met in an art class. There’s the kid who would rather exclusively draw the things they like, there’s the kid who likes art as a hobby but haaaates being given a project, etc etc. There are students who have an innate grasp on how to draw but haven’t internalized the Why of the exercises, and students who are receptive to the lessons but don’t have the ability to match. The narrative is extremely even-handed towards all of these different levels of skills, and places a lot more importance on why, emotionally, you should totally care about drawing apples and water pitchers for five hours at a time. It’s GREAT and I want to force it on every creative I’ve ever known.

Another thing I appreciate about this series so far is that while there has been something resembling sexual/romantic tension, it’s kind of not like that at all? In the first volume I haven’t been able to pinpoint where a potential relationship subplot would go, if at all. Two possibilities are this girl:

...who is a very likable character but surprisingly doesn’t fit into that box of “standard love interest”. The protag’s interactions with her have been exclusively respectful and admiring, which doesn’t even necessarily imply a romantic subplot, but would be pretty cool if it did? And the other girl:

...who is featured in decidedly more sexual tension-y contexts, is actually TRANS. The manga actually portrays them so uncompromisingly feminine that I didn’t realize they were crossdressing (the term used in the text) until the author’s notes at the end of the volume. I will partially blame this on me being out of it this month, since I just went back to their introduction and yep, they got misgendered and contested it. Given how the character is regularly framed (confident, attractive, skilled, nonstereotypical), I’m… pretty okay with this! If a romance blooms between a delinquent boy and a trans girl, that’s amazing.

I hope y’all understand where I’m coming from in expecting a shoehorned romantic subplot. I’m not hoping for one, I just know the product by now. And if it happens, the options are considerably more interesting than usual.

These are pretty good kids.

Manga licensing is a lot better nowadays than it ever was before, with lots of obscure series being picked up, old series getting re-localized, and translations being better than ever. I really really want this series to get licensed so someone can be compensated for it, and so more people might read it. Until then, I think you should look up the fan work.

---

So that’s all for April. If these posts included live-action movies, I’d have talked about Endgame, but I also don’t want to go spoiling anything for someone who still wants to go see that (it’s probably one of my favorite MCU movies, though). I read most of 1970-71 in Marvel comics, or at least most of the issues on my reading list, but I semi-liveblog about those, so you can just search my “curry reads comics” tag for that. Here’s hoping I have more interesting, more positive things to say about May in a month. I expect to finish Breath of the Wild by then, so I’ll finally talk about that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Go check out Blue Period.

#curry reads manga #curry watches anime #curry plays games

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tcswritings · 5 years

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family ties.

Malachy. The O’Connells have to face the worst moments of their lives.

(...)

So, the day was July 22nd 2016 and it was, I dunno, the later part of the evening. Mal was working late and it happened on his way home. His car got hit by a truck on the drivers’ side. The truck driver didn’t pay attention, he was tired after a long week and fell asleep momentarily. It’s not a real consolation but Mal didn’t suffer, in fact he didn’t even realise what was happening. He just saw the huge lights, so close to him, and then nothing.

Chloe was at home, tidying up the house a bit and getting slightly mad at her hubby for not coming home at the time he promised. He wanted to bring their dinner after all. She checked her watch, only to check it again five minutes later and she had been doing that the entire evening. Sam was staying at a friend’s house and Rory wasn’t feeling well so he already went to sleep.

“Screw you, O’Connell. You could at least give me a damn call?!” she murmured to herself. “Instead you’re making me starve, I can’t believe it. You’re so not gonna get laid tonight.” She stopped and scratched her head. “Who am I even talking to? My god, I’m going insane.” Chloe scoffed at herself, and she grabbed her book and was just about to make herself comfy on her couch when her phone buzzed.

“There you go.” she sighed, reaching for her phone. It wasn’t Malachy, though. It was Sarah who didn’t even bother to wait for Chloe to say anything.

“This is it, Chloe. Ye can tell yer dear husband that I’ve had it with him.”

“Sarah.” Chloe answered reluctantly and she frowned. “What’s goin’ on?”

“He didn’t even call, he just didn’t show up. He promised to stop by at seven and now it’s almost ten. Not that he didn’t even bother to call us, he won’t pick up his phone either. Tell him to get lost, that’s not how ye treat your ma and pa?!”

“Sarah-”

“Look, it’s not that I don’t get that people at a certain age rather spend time with their significant other,” - she emphasised those last few words and Chloe smiled to herself at the mocking tone of it -, “than their parents but dammit, I gave birth to this little fucker! Twenty-one hours of labor and I’m not even worth a call?!”

Despite Sarah’s rage that she, being a mother herself, could very well understand, Chloe had to chuckle. “I’m sorry. He’s a despicable human being and I’m gonna tell him.”

“Tell him he’s an ungrateful little shit, too.”

“Of course. Will do once he gets home, I promise.”

“Wait, what? He isn’t even home yet?”

“Nah, I was just about-”

The doorbell rang. Still holding the cell phone to her ear, Chloe hurried to the entrance hall. Peeking through the door’s window, she saw two men clad in dark blue uniforms. “Sarah, I’m sorry, I’m gonna call you back, okay?” she mumbled into the phone, startled at the sight of the two Gardai on her front porch. Chloe put her phone in her pocket and then she opened the door.

To this day, she can’t really recall that particular evening. Looking back, it felt like she left her body in that moment and watched the events of the evening through someone else’s eyes and with a certain distance. There was a lot of “We’re sorry.” and “Do you need us to do anything else, Mrs O’Connell?” and she remembers this really insane moment when her only thought was that Malachy was supposed to get them dinner and that she was still starving.

She felt a bit like what she supposed a robot to feel like - she merely functioned and did what had to be done. She woke up Rory and called the parents of the friend Sam was staying at, giving them a quick update on what happened and that she’d appreciate it if they could help Sam to get ready so she can pick him up in about twenty minutes.

She also called Sarah back, asking her to tell Declan and Orla and she called Kieran on his cell phone before she made her way to the hospital to see her husband for what she feared would be the last time.

***************

Sarah just stood there, frozen on the spot, not quite believing what her daughter in law had just told her. She dropped her phone on the couch, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

This could not be true. It was impossible.

“Sarah. Darling, what is it?” Sean asked again, sounding alarmed and squeezing his wife’s upper arm a little, to make her snap back to reality.

“Malachy. There was-” Sarah took another breath. “There was - he had an accident.”

Sean felt his guts turn to ice. “An accident. Dear lord. But he’s… he’s alright, isn’t he?” He could feel his voice shaking.

“We have to get going, Sean, and we have to get a hold of Orla and Declan. I mean, where are these two, anyway?” Sarah hissed and hastily looked for her phone, remembering that she had just dropped it on the couch a minute ago. “Chloe was about to call Kieran just now and-”

“Sarah.” Sean insisted and grabbed his wife by her shoulders. “Sarah, darling, talk to me. Is Malachy alright?”

Sarah looked her husband in the eyes and that was when Sean knew. He just knew by seeing his wife’s expression. He nodded and swallowed.

“Where did they take him?” he merely asked.

“University hospital.”

Sean nodded again and he was about to go and get his things when Sarah held him back.

“Sean? Our boy is there. In some dark and cold room. All alone.” she said sternly, but her voice cracked. Sean could tell she was fighting hard to hold it all back.

He couldn’t help but admire her.

“Not for very much longer.” Sean assured his wife. “We’ll be there in less than ten minutes. You call the twins, I’ll get everything ready and I’ll wait outside in the car for you.”

Sarah nodded, touching Sean’s cheek.

“Hurry.”

***************

Kieran sat at his desk in the bureau and he had been battling a few stacks of paper for a while. It has been an unusually quiet day at the bureau and he had spent all day here, catching up on a few things and doing some dreaded paperwork.

“Fuckin’ Friday night and I got nothin’ better to do than this. That’s it, I’m officially pathetic.” he murmured, highlighting another line in that report in front of him.

“I’m impressed by your work ethic. It’s not like you have to do this? Everyone else went home already. Not you though?” his new colleague, Evelyn, responded cheerfully.

Kieran looked up from his paper and gave her a dry laugh. “Yeah, rub it in. I like that.”

“Nah I didn’t mean it in a weird way?”

“This isn’t about work ethic, it’s really just about me having nothin’ else to do today.” Kieran replied wearily.

“Aw, come on, I can’t believe that a guy like you doesn’t have someone waitin’ for him somewhere.”

“You’re not makin’ this any better, Ev.” Highlighting another line at the bottom of his paper, Kieran now lazily turned the page. He frowned. “This is bullshit, I don’t even know what I’m reading here.” he mumbled and tossed the paper a few inches away from him.

“Wow, you’re crabby today. It sounds like there is someone after all, though?”

“No, that’s not what I said? There isn’t.” Kieran sighed. “I mean, not… not really.”

Evelyn put her pen away and leaned back in her chair. “Do tell. And don’t even try to change the subject… I’ve studied human behaviour long enough to be able to tell that somethin’s been weighing on your mind for a while and I’ve been in love long enough to link that particular circumstance to what you just said.” she concluded with a firm nod.

Kieran raised an eyebrow. “You… only talk so you can listen to yourself talkin’, right?”

“Sometimes, yeah. Not this time, though. Come on, tell me about it. Who is she? Or he?”

Kieran gave her another sigh but the prospect of just talking to someone unrelated about it actually was strangely tempting.

“It’s not like it matters anyway. She’s… in Boston, y’know. And I’m here. Doin’ fuckin’ paperwork on a Friday night.”

“Boston, huh? How would you end up with a girl in Boston anyway?”

“We didn’t end up - I just, I dunno, I go there a few times a year. Great city. Met her years ago already and, well-”

Kieran’s phone started buzzing. Startled by the sound of it, he looked at the caller’s ID.

“Chloe?” he muttered, confused.

“So her name’s Chloe?” Evelyn asked.

Kieran made a little gesture with his hand to shut Evelyn off and he picked up his phone. He didn’t really know where the feeling came from but having his sister in law call him at eleven in the night was highly unusual and he felt his stomach turn.

“Chloe? Yeah, of course it’s me… what is it?”

Evelyn watched Kieran’s expression turning to stone. “Uh-oh.” she thought.

“How… when?” Kieran let out a heavy breath. “I’m at work. I’ll be there - no I’ll be there, okay? I’ll be there in a few hours. Chloe, listen - I’ll be there. I’ll get into my car in five seconds and I’ll be there. There’s no way I’m stayin’ here, alright? Gimme a few hours. Okay. Okay! We’re wasting time… yeah, okay. Do what you gotta do, tell the others that I’m on my way, okay? Yeah. I will. Bye.”

“Oh my god, what was that?” Evelyn asked carefully.

“I gotta go. I can’t explain. I, I - I gotta go, Ev. I’m sorry.” Kieran stammered, grabbing together his belongings and without any further word, he left the office.

“Of course…” she nodded. “Go! Wherever you go, drive carefully?” she called after him.

“Oh, the irony.” Kieran thought to himself while he was rushing out of the building. He felt his heart racing while he ran to the bureau’s parking lot and when he eventually got to his car, he flung its door open, threw his jacket on the passengers’ seat and got into the car, slamming the door shut behind him.

“Fag. Now.” he thought and frantically searched the pockets of his jacket for the little package, as well as the glovebox. He couldn’t find anything.

“Oh fuckin’ HELL, it was there earlier?!” Kieran cursed to himself and he felt devastation, anger and helplessness rising up inside him. He slumped back into the driver’s seat in frustration and realised only now that he was shaking like a leaf. He gripped the steering wheel with both of his hands. “Focus, O’Connell. Calm down. You can’t go anywhere like this.” he thought to himself. Taking a few firm breaths, he calmed down enough to remember that he had put his cigarettes into the pocket of his jeans. He shifted a bit on the seat and pulled them out, opening the car’s door again.

Kieran lit the cigarette up and took a first pull, inhaling deeply. His breath was still shaky. Leaning back into the seat again, he closed his eyes and swallowed down a sob. He was in no way ready for this. He wasn’t ready to start the engine, to leave Dublin, to enter a world that Malachy O’Connell was no longer a part of. If he just stayed here, in his car, in the parking lot, he could just pretend for another little while that it wasn’t true. It was a childish thought, he knew it. Childish but very, very tempting.

A few minutes later Kieran had gathered himself together enough to take the dreaded way home. He left his best friend Rachel a text message, “Won’t be home for a few days. I’ll call you as soon as I can.” and left the parking lot, driving off into the unknown.

***************

“Alright, lads and ladies - last call for today!” Rosamund called. The pub was already empty, except for a few older guys sitting in the corner at the window and her young (and secret favourite) guests who had occupied the seats at the bar around her.

“Nah, way too soon!” Mick exclaimed indignantly. “Discussion ain’t over yet, no one goes anywhere until we settled this.”

“What did he say?” Rosamund hissed, turning to Orla and Jessie. “I swear, any time this kid opens his mouth I only hear gibberish!”

“Don’t look at me.” Jessie held up her hands in defense, “I don’t speak O’Loughlin. She does, though.” She pointed to Orla.

Orla nodded enthusiastically. “I do and I don’t quite believe I’m sayin’ this but he has a point.”

“I love how y’all talkin’ about me as if I wasn’t there.” Declan now chimed in. “I’ll have another half pint, Rose. Please.”

“How polite.” Rosamund chuckled. “Samantha likes ‘em polite.”

“Not you, too. Gosh! Stop talking about me already?”

“As if you don’t like being talked about?” Jessie scoffed.

“When I’m not there, sure?! You guys are discussing my love life-”

“Lack thereof.” Mick interrupted.

“- or the lack thereof while I am here, though.” Declan now turned to his best friend, crossing his arms. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, which side are you on after all?”

“On yours! Always was, always will be. I say - ask her out. I mean, where’s the harm in tryin’ after all? She likes ya.”

“I can’t ask a woman out who’s ten years older. Besides, I don’t even like her… y’know, that way but for some reason no one believes me anyway. Thanks.” he added when Rosamund handed him his half pint. “Also, she has a kid.”

“So do you.” Orla frowned.

“That’s different.”

“How’s that different?”

Rolling his eyes, Declan groaned, as if Orla was just dense for missing his point. “It just is.”

“Aw man, we all just want you to be happy, Dipso.” Jessie laughed and she reached out to pat Declan’s cheek but he was having none of it and briskly pushed her hand away.

“Now ya made him mad, Jess.” Mick said, just lighting himself another cigarette, when all of a sudden his phone in front of him started buzzing. “What the fuck. Not now.” he murmured and picked the phone up. Turning away from the group a bit, he looked at the caller’s ID, frowned a little and answered the call.

“I’m not mad, I’m not frustrated and I am not in love, alright?” Declan went on. “It’s about time you guys get that into your heads. Can’t we just make fun of someone else now? Look, Mick’s talking to someone on the phone. Let’s tease him. I hope it’s the concert lady from two weeks ago, that would have teasing potential.”

“Actually…it’s for you.” Mick had just turned around on his seat again, looking clearly confused. “Any of you two.” He looked at Declan, then at Orla, holding his phone out to them. “It’s Sarah and she sounds upset.”

Not quite understanding the situation, Declan made a face. “What? Sarah? Our mother Sarah?”

“Aye.” Mick gave a little nod, looking at the phone and up again, indicating that Declan should take it.

“What the-”

“Take it already.” Orla urged him.

“Okay, okay.” Declan took the phone and held it up to his ear. “Ma, what’s up? Don’t have my phone with me today, sorry. So, you wanna take part in the discussion about my poor love life? You’re gonna love it, it’s- what? Come again? … oh my god.” He looked up at Orla, waving her over to him.

“What’s going on?” Orla whispered impatiently but Declan only pulled her closer to his side, gripping her upper arm tightly. “Ow, Dec, what-”

“No, we’re on our way. Yeah. No, we’ll get a cab or somethin’, ya’ll stay where you are. Yeah, see you in a bit.” He hung up and gave Mick his phone back. He then turned to his sister, reaching up and holding her face in both of his hands. “We gotta go. Now.”

“Declan, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?” Orla inquired, already feeling slightly nauseous.

“Mal had an accident… earlier this evening.” Declan’s voice broke and breathed out. “He - he didn’t make it.” It almost sounded like a question.

“What?” Orla muttered, her voice soft, and she looked at her brother, utterly confused, her blue eyes huge and Declan’s heart broke a little further at the sight of her expression.

“Cab me arse, I’ll drive.” Mick took a last pull of his cigarette and flicked it away. “C’mon!” he called, already making his way outside the pub.

“You want me to- I don’t know what to say, I-” Jessie stammered, looking like she got hit by a freight train and she was at a clear loss at what to do now. “I should probably pay our tab, though, I mean, we can’t just-”

“You kids leave. Screw the tab.” Rosamund interrupted her. “Just go! I’m closing NOW.” she called into the direction where the older guys were still sitting. “The three of you get out already! I mean it, forget the tab!”

“Let’s go. C’mon.” Declan nudged Orla, who just kept wiping her silent tears away, and took Jessie’s hand and they all followed Mick outside.

He drove them to the hospital, and no one said a single word. Declan and Orla had taken the backseat, holding on to each other and Jessie had taken the passengers’ seat, reaching out her hand (in a rather uncomfortable way but she didn’t care) to Declan and Orla behind her who both had taken it. She looked over to Mick who just seemed to concentrate on the traffic but she knew he was shaken. She would take care of him once they dropped the twins off at the hospital.

When they did, Orla turned around one last time, sniffing slightly. “Thank you. I’ll call you guys once I- once I can.”

“Go!” Jessie hushed her and her and Mick watched the two hurrying into the building.

********************************************

So, that’s how everyone got notified and the hospital got filled with O’Connells and they all were in this really weird state in which you can’t really wrap your head around what had just happened. They all knew it was huge but none of them could even begin to think of the impact the incident would have on their lives.

Everyone was tired and worn out and just there, trying to keep going, supporting each other, not really knowing where else to go and not really knowing what they were waiting for either since there was nothing that could be done for Malachy. None of them really wanted to leave him there all alone just yet, though, and if that meant that they had to stay in that hospital corridor until someone would finally tell them to go, they would do it. The nurses on the floor were really nice and understanding, though, providing them a free room with a few beds so at least Chloe, Sam and Rory could get a bit of rest.

Declan didn’t say a single word the entire night, he just responded by nodding or shaking his head but apart from that, his mind was somewhere else, far from everyone else. Orla couldn’t stop crying, the sleeves of her shirt were soaked and she made sure to get a hug every ten or so minutes. Kieran was busy functioning, just like Chloe. He was the one who talked to the nurses and who even joked with them, not really knowing how to channel his emotions. He even felt strangely alright and he didn’t know at this point that it would hit him a few days later, without mercy and with full force, at work in the restroom.

They all experienced for the first time what it feels like when there’s absolutely nothing left to say. It’s what all of them had in common that night, each of them dealing with it in their very own way.

At some point they all decided that it was time to leave, though. Sarah and Sean accompanied Chloe and the boys home and stayed with them and Kieran took the twins to his parents’ house.

“I don’t wanna sleep in my old room. I don’t wanna sleep at all. Not yet.”

It was the first thing Declan had said ever since he got the news. He kicked off his shoes in the hallway and went straight to the living room, starting to take the cushions off the furniture, throwing them right in front of the fireplace.

“What are you doing?” Orla asked, confused, once again sniffing a little. She felt a bit better but the tears just kept coming back and she no longer cared about hiding them.

Kieran had picked up Declan’s thoughts, though, and he smiled. “Come on.” He gently took Orla’s arm and took her with him. He went over to the large cupboard and pulled a few drawers open. He took out a blanket and tossed it at her. “Catch!”

“Have you two lost your mind?” she asked, barely catching the blanket she now saw flying into her direction. “HEY!”

“Maybe we have lost our minds.” Declan began and gave his sister a surprise hug from behind. “This is a bit of a tough situation though and I know you know what those call for.”

“A contemplation castle!” Orla gasped, finally getting what her brothers were up to.

“That was the idea.”

They had done that as kids in the past every so often. Whenever something happened that needed a bit of thinking or whenever they had to come up with a plan for whatever the issue was or whenever they were just sad or moody, Orla and Declan had built themselves a pillow fort. Teenage Kieran had often lovingly mocked their forts, “Don’t bother looking for Orla and Declan, they’re stuck in contemplation castle.”, but he had found himself sitting with the two sometimes, bringing them sweets and, as their older, more experienced brother, trying to give some insight on the situation they were facing. His troubled seventeen year old self even sat in one of their forts all alone for a little while, after the twins had already left it. He didn’t really believe it but he hoped that the fort would have a reassuring effect on him as well and to this day he feels that it somehow did.

So the three grown up O’Connell siblings built themselves what would probably be their last fort and they crawled into it, laying down next to each other, Orla in the middle. She took her brothers’ hands and they would just lay there and talk nonsense and share silly anecdotes, even laughing heartily at things every so often.

“You know what? We’re all gonna have terrible back aches when we wake up tomorrow.” Orla said eventually. “Ugh, I already feel it.”

“I know. I don’t mind.” Kieran replied.

“Me neither.” Declan agreed.

None of them dared to speak on what they all had in their minds in this very moment, though: that this was probably their last cheerful moment together for a long while and that their backaches would be nothing compared to their heartaches.

When Sarah and Sean came home the next morning and found their three grown up kids peacefully sleeping next to each other on the living room’s floor, Sarah burst out crying. She was incredibly touched to see what the three had done and she was proud to be their mom and at the same time it had just hit her that it would never ever be like this again. Their lives had just been shaken to the core and they all would get pulled back into reality really soon. Sean held his sobbing wife close to him but she recovered pretty quickly.

“I don’t know how, darling, but we’ll make this.” Sean whispered into her ear, standing behind her and gently rubbing her upper arms.

“Sean O’Connell, the cheerful optimist.” Sarah smiled wearily, not knowing at this point whether she really believed him.

“Cheerful? Not so much, I’m afraid.”

They stood there for a moment, silently, letting their words sink in.

“I want everyone here today, Sean.” Sarah now suggested, reaching for the coffee can.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m gonna make coffee and then we wake up the kids. We can all rest a bit but I want everyone to come over to our house today. Chloe and the boys - oh, we should probably call Father Moore - “

“Sarah, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” Sean interrupted her and shook his head. “This hardly calls for a party after all-”

“Oh don’t gimme that crap now, O’Connell.” Sarah snapped. “Ya think I don’t know what just happened? This ain’t gonna be a party? Ya think I’m gonna shout it from the rooftops? Ya think I’m gonna invite old widow Clarke and her fucking little shit of a barking mutt?”

“You… better not?”

“I want Chloe and the boys here. Father Moore, if he can make it. Jessica and Michael. Lauren and Ash. They all deserve to be here, Sean. I don’t wanna pretend to have a jolly good time, I want the whole family around. I am not ready to deal with this on my own yet.” Sarah could feel her voice shaking again.

“You won’t have to?”

“Ye know what I mean.” Sarah pouted and crossed her arms.

If the situation hadn’t been so tense, Sean would have laughed at his wife’s reaction. It wasn’t funny at all, though, and he chose his next words carefully. “I’m not saying we can’t do this, I just don’t want to watch you denying-”

“One last day. That’s all I ask for.”

“One last day?”

“I mean, Kieran has to go back to Dublin anyway, he can’t just stay here for weeks, to support his ma and pa. I want one last day before the lights go off, Sean.”

Knowing too well what his wife was referring to, Sean nodded eventually. “Go and make coffee. I’ll wake the mob.”

***

#malachy

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legalist217 · 6 years

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SHADOW AND BONE: After-Action Report

I’m writing this before cracking Siege and Storm--okay, I’ve read the first page, but MOSTLY true--because each book deserves its own fair chance and its own assessment. Sure, they also need to work together as a trilogy, but each one is a book in itself. And the first book of any trilogy particularly must be able to stand alone, both to ensure the series is picked up and to provide narrative satisfaction in case it isn’t.

Before beginning, a note of explanation regarding tags. While thinking the title was “Shadow and THRONE” was a genuine mistake on my part--I blame the swoopy font and the fact both words suit the narrative--tagging with the & spelled out was not. It’s the same reason why most of my live-blogging of this book went on Twitter. While my whinging about YA tropes entertains some and is cathartic to me, I understand people not wanting negative interaction in their tag. Plus, sometimes those tropes are there for a reason and I didn’t really feel like looking like a damn fool in real time on this platform. (Besides, there’s only a handful of people for me to directly annoy on Twitter, versus this blog having a diverse portfolio of followers who likely do not give a shit about the actual thesis statement that brought me to tumblr.)

That being said, this is serious thought and will go in the tag (under a readmore), warts and all, because now that I’ve read the book, it has to stand on its feet. So, what’ve we got?

I was texting a friend and came up with the following analogy:

[Shadow and Bone] blends a lot of pleasing attributes from series that I liked, but, not necessarily well. Like if it was cake batter, there would still be distinct lumps of identifiable flour and butter. But it’s a good recipe and a first part and the lumps aren’t that distracting so I’m inclined to forgive and want another piece.

For once, I don’t think the metaphor ran away from me. Often, this is simply that the book is using the YA tropes I’ve come to hate, but then deftly shifts (most of) them into something that makes functional sense. However, while reading this book, the following connections came to mind unbidden:

for all they go on about being practitioners of the Small Science (which would make you think an alchemy comparison would be forthcoming), the Grisha more resemble benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Actually, it reminds me more of Korra due to the cultural attitudes separating Grisha and otkazat’sya (aka normies). There’s a mention at the end that the First Army (normie soldiers) and the Second Army (Grisha) are rumored to be warring with each other.

one night, the protagonist is alone in the hospital wing recovering from having broken bones speed-mended when suddenly the character who keeps trying to help via unsettling cryptic clues which mostly amount to GTFO shows up over the protagonist’s bed to deliver more cryptic warnings. Did I just recount to you a scene from Shadow and Bone between Alina and the Apparat, or was that Harry and Dobby in Chamber of Secrets?

But these are the unblended parts. I’m still #shook by just how well Mr. the Darkling is written as a manipulator. I knew it was coming. It couldn’t not. But the book lulls you the same way he lulls Alina, whisking you from the genuinely horrifying Fold to a beautiful castle full of beautiful distractions. He knows just how much carrot to offer via conversations and appearing vulnerable. He applies the stick by not talking to her, and also implicitly by stopping her mail from reaching Mal. Because the book is narrated by Alina, we only pick up anything she does. And she misses much, misinterprets more, and gets so hung up on the kiss that it’s hard not to be swept along with her. All according to keikaku.

One of my favorite instances of this is in the choice of kefta colors. A garment that only Grisha wear, kefta are color-coded based on the individual’s ability. Mr. the Darkling announces that Alina will wear black, a color reserved only for himself. She rejects this in favor of Summoner-blue. It’s a choice that she makes because she doesn’t want to be socially isolated, and Mr. the Darkling seems pissy about her not acceding to his offer of fanciness. Her best gal pal Genya, who’s stuck wearing servant white in accordance with being the Queen’s cosmetic magician and the King’s bedwarmer, is stunned that such an offer of status would be let go.

But Alina was correct, just not for the reasons she thought she was. Being elevated to the same status as the leader of the Grisha would have kept her isolated from the others. Were it not for her standard-issue YA protagonist personality preventing her from making more than like two real friends, Mr. the Darkling might’ve had reason to worry about her getting away from him. But, no, her only female friend is stuck spending her nights away at the palace, and Gale from The Hunger Games is off tracking game. She’s a loner who is alone. And he cultivates that aloneness, kisses her when she’s distracted, then leaves her to stew on these new complex feelings. Is it any wonder she doesn’t resist the black kefta at the fete?

As someone who’s been played multiple times, it’s shiveringly real. I dig it. I’m intrigued to see what happens next. What a sneaky boy. Someone hurry up and make an edit of the OOH MR DARCY comic to justify my persistent nickname for him.

As for Mal, I called him Gale, and I’m sure those who’ve read the entire trilogy are protesting that this is an entirely unfair assessment of his character. Recall that I’m only addressing book one in this. What I do like, honestly, is that he seems better written than Gale did. I understand that war does different things to different people, but so many of Suzanne Collins’s characters had the same response to war that it at some point seemed improbable that they’d all become hardened near-sociopaths. Mal, however, has a real and believable love for Alina, the kind that leaves him too angry to speak to her for ages, but that ultimately allows him to forgive everything that went wrong in the face of peril. I can’t wait to see how his character gets from here to where I know from sundry spoilers it’ll end up. Definitely a more interesting boy than Gale.

Alina herself? At first, I didn’t want to like her. She read so much like all the other YA girls with all their other sad backstories, their pale faces, their skinny bodies, their clumsy lack of athleticism. But all of these attributes seemed like they were being announced so as to get them out of the way, as if we needed to get past them in order to make room for the good stuff. When it’s revealed that her bad health is directly tied to having suppressed her Grisha-ness for all those years, and that her acceptance of her gift correlates to a sunburst of good health, it’s a rush of maddeningly fresh air. All I want is a real reason for things to be presented as they are. The book gave it to me.

This doesn’t address her personality, which I earlier called standard-issue. I’m not really going to back down from that; YA heroines as a rule are sassy and straightforward and speak their mind. What lets her work better is that she lives in a world where the characters don’t respond with pearl-clutching. Alina isn’t the sole master of witty banter. She plays really nicely off of Genya, Mal, and especially Mr. the Darkling. Again, that’s all I need, guys, take note.

I’m told there are ways in which the sequels will burn off my goodwill, but that is a problem for future Liz to address in a future report. I liked this one. I don’t stay up until past two in the morning for every book I read; I have to either hate it or love it. This one was the second one.

Thanks to @alskaichou for recommending the Grishaverse. I hope you’re happy, missy >_> and don’t worry, I’ll write you fresh letters and link the fresh twitter threads as soon as I start Siege.

#the grisha trilogy #shadow and bone #shadow ampersand throne #alina starkov #mr. the darkling

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malucelliphotographicarts · 4 years

Text

A Little About Myself and my Art.

Hello! It’s been a while since this page has been updated, so if you’ll allow me to re-introduce myself in a more genuine way.

My name is Chynna Malucelli, (China Mal-Uh-Chel-E) hopefully that helps a few people. I am currently 23 and attending AAU in San Francisco, Ca. AAU is an art academy that I’ve been attending since late 2014 where I’ve all but nearly finished my BFA in photography. Originally I was going to major in documentary photography with my BFA, which has since changed. I am now a fine art landscape and still life photographer! I found passion with working with landscapes and how I like to place my own vision on each image. The same could be said for my still life as well, though sometimes it can be a bit challenging to find just the right scene I like. I’ve been taking photos since 2010 and got more serious about this being a career in 2012/2013 when I began looking into colleges. Since then my vision has changed quite dramatically, for the good thankfully. I’m a huge fan of photographers like Adam Elmakias, Gabriel (Visualsbygabe) and Beacasso.

While they may not exactly be photographers in the fields I specialize in, I do admire their work. I take a lot of inspiration from other visual artists in other mediums as well, which is what really drives me to create my pages anew again. While I’m thankful for all the support that everyone has given me over the years, this is not going to be a full-time gig for me. There is a bright side to all this, which is that this will be more of a part-time side job for me while I take on a full-time job! I want to continue to pursue art in my own way without a school breathing down my neck about how I am supposed to present myself, and that wound up being the main reason for me not updating as frequently. To describe myself as an artist, I like to work with what genuinely makes me happy and with others who connect with my work in their own way. The goal I have when it comes to others viewing my work is to leave it open for everyone to create their own connection to how they see my images. I don’t like the idea of forcing someone to see things how I do creatively, I feel that in order to have a more meaningful connection to what you see is to have your own experience that isn’t influenced by me or other people. That’s just one of the many things that make viewing each photo more unique. Along with this, it’s been a personal philosophy of mine that an image should be an enhancement on what someone can see with their own two eyes, being able to really put themselves in place of where the image is at. It gives off a relaxed and calm feeling when people connect with my art without being given any information other than the location it was shot.

While I am open to working collaboratively with other artists, I do want to work with those who are genuinely interested in what I do and how they connect with my photographic art. It would feel and be dishonest to work with someone just because of the money, or just because of someone being part of a big corporation without really being interested in what I have to say about my own photos. With that being said, the reason I pushed myself into fine art photography is that it’s something I deeply enjoy and brings me happiness. From the start of my journey in 2010, I had been so torn on being focused on what I love to photograph vs what makes a livable income. I lost sight of what was important and it caused me to stop creating and be unhappy with everything I did and it resulted in sub-par work that I hated. Once I went back more to my roots of where I started, that’s when fine art photography swept me in it’s path to where I am now. While this business is about selling my images to you who views it, I’m not focused on getting tons of sales or even making a six-figure income off my art. I’m doing this because I love what I do and want to share my work with others, and that means you want to buy some of my work, then I’m willing to sell to you.

As far as websites are concerned, right now I don’t really have a functioning page that accepts cards for payment. I am working on getting that all set up so that I can better accommodate those of you who want to buy some of my art. For now, until I can get things more functional we can discuss payments through e-mail or the message system in place here. I do have a costs sheet for everything that is in the works of being properly formatted and posted, as well as a buyers, return and purchase policy to protect myself and you from a horrible experience. Once again, I’d like to thank everyone for their support over the years, it’s meant a lot to me, and it’s finally time that I put this page to use with how I see fit to display my work and not how my school has been breathing down my neck to have things. Thank you and I look forward to interacting and working with all of you!

Chynna Malucelli.

#About Me

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greathammerhead · 7 years

Photo

Chapter 3

summary: She ended every letter with a heart; she was still debating if distance really made the heart grow fonder. pairings: Harry Hook x Evie, Ben x Mal; slight Carlos x Jane, Carlos x Jay, Carlos x Chad style: Multi-chapter — somewhat sequel to this; canon divergence notes: I’m still quite wifi-less so it’s hard for me to reply at the moment, but I’m so grateful for all the love I’ve seen, thank you all so much <3 There will be more Harry and the Isle next chapter, there was just a few things I wanted to set up first. : rated: T; will feature strong language, minor violence, and sexual themes other locations: ao3 | ffnet tumblr chapter listing: x

Mal had never been struck by someone before. She’d rather an actual slap in the face than the weird feeling that presented itself whenever Ben was around.

Maybe it was because he was the first genuine person she’d ever met and she didn’t know what to make of it.

And she hated it.

He smiled because he was actually happy, and his offers of aid were never presented so he could gain something from her. As a child, she had scoffed at the fairy tales and their descriptions of perfect princes, not thinking anyone could actually be so kind.

Meeting just one person like that was exhausting enough, especially since he seemed to linger around her and her fellow VKs. She made a game out of finding the flaws in the other hero children to make herself more comfortable around the smiling faces.

Audrey was easy; she was too busy projecting her own insecurities as a false ego to actually care about Ben, or really, anyone but herself.

Lonnie was still trying to find herself. She felt like an outsider, wearing pretty dresses while idolizing her mother and wanting to emulate her.

Chad was an idiot. He was irritatingly similar to Audrey, entirely too full of himself to properly function, but his underlying issue seemed to be not unlike a lot of their fellow students: he’d never had any trials or tribulations in his life, and they’ve only been told stories of the villains and their children, so much so that they became more evil figures and boogeymen than actual people, and the fact that they were now in Auradon gave them all a sense of anxiety.

Jane was the most insecure person Mal had ever met, and unlike everyone else, Jane couldn’t hide it to save her life. She felt incredibly vulnerable under her mother’s warm gaze, feeling a pressing weight on her shoulders because of her, and she was desperate to be anyone but herself.

But when her critical eyes landed on Ben…she couldn’t find anything. All she could see was someone who was too kind, too giving, too passionate about his country and his people, the same line of thinking that lead him to care about the forgotten children such as herself.

The worst part was that she couldn’t even bring herself to hate him for it.

- - -

After being left to their own devices, Evie was finally read into the plan of trying to steal Fairy Godmother’s magic wand, which would allow them to break the barrier and unleash chaos.

That first night they found out it wouldn’t be as easy as they hoped. With Jay’s wonderful and calculated attempt at just swiping the wand from its’ display, they realized they needed Fairy Godmother to take it out willingly, and Mal was spending most of her time coming up with a way to do so through Jane.

Evie truly hoped it would be soon.

She was distracted during class — Chemistry, one of the classes she had alone —taking to doodling in her notebook than pay attention. Regardless, she sat next to Doug, who still seemed to be entranced by her.

She hadn’t noticed she was writing her name as “Evie H.” in her notebook until Doug tapped his pencil on one of them.

“H? Isn’t your last name Gr-”

“Evie.” Their teacher looked over at her, “Perhaps this is just review for you, so tell me, what is the average atomic weight of silver?”

She grinned through gritted teeth. She could see Doug sending her an apologetic look from the corner of her eye.

“The average atomic weight…of silver…” As she spoke, one of her hands fished around her purse, looking for the smooth surface of the mirror. Once found, her fingers curled around it, encasing and hiding it in the palm of her hand.

When the teacher gave her an unimpressed look and motioned for her to come up to the board, she gave a grand smile.

Oh, he would learn to never underestimate a villain.

- - -

The four agreed to meet up after tourney practice, and Evie was the first to arrive.

Which she didn’t mind. Her little distraction during Chemistry had given her an idea, and she was eager to get started on it.

She sat at the picnic table, took out one of her notebooks, and opened to an empty page. She then went for her pencil case, fishing through numerous blue pens to find the sole red one she owned.

She paused before the pen hit the paper.

What could she even say? How would she even-

She pressed her lips together, willing the tears that were beginning to form to go away. She would worry about that later, but for now, she needed an outlet.

‘I don’t know when this will get to you and I don’t know how…’

Once she opened the well, the words poured from her with ease.

She didn’t realize how much she’d been writing until a backpack was thrown against the table top and she jumped up, noticing that she’d written over a page. When she turned to the new arrival, thoroughly expecting either Mal or Jay by the way the backpack was thrown, she was shocked to see the grinning face of one Chad Charming.

“Is everyone on the Isle as pretty as you?”

Guessing he had no intentions of leaving her alone, she placed her pen down and gave him her best terrifying smile. While it was considered sub-par on the Isle, it would be more than enough for Auradon.

“That depends,” The way she bared her teeth made definitely made him flinch, “how turned on are you by danger and malnourishment?”

Chad furrowed his brow, mouthing the word “malnourishment” as if willing it to make sense to him by just repeating it.

Evie’s brows raised. “It means lack of food, Charming.”

“Oh.” He smiled airily, as if he didn’t just need her to explain it. “Well, sure.”

If it wasn’t so undignified, Evie would’ve slapped her forehead.

“Anyway, you really nailed that Chemistry problem today. You’re gonna have all the nerds in love with you.”

Chad’s dazzling smile came easy to him, so much so that Evie wondered just how many girls he’d used it on.

“Your point?”

Undeterred, he sat down beside her, arm propped against the table. “Someone like you deserves a prince. Your mother is a queen, after all.”

“I already have one.” Chad paused, the charm he thought he possessed slowly slipping in his confusion.

“Um, uh…what?”

His lack of intelligence would’ve been endearing on anyone but him.

“Boyfriend, Chad. I already have a boyfriend. On the Isle.” She spoke slow and clear, as if speaking to a child, not really thinking about what she was saying.

What was the harm in it, anyway?

“Boyfriend, huh?” Chad popped up the collar of his letterman jacket, looking away from and trying to pretend that didn’t put a stop in whatever he’d been trying to pull. “Well!” And with that he gave a huff, grabbed his backpack, and left in a hurry.

Evie rolled her eyes and turned back to the paper in front of her. She was just about to pick the pen up when she heard rustling from behind a nearby tree, and Doug appeared from behind it.

“I couldn’t help but overhear-”

“Are you stalking me?”

Doug paused. “Technically…yes.” He walked over to the table and sat down beside her. “I too have a…significant other on the Isle.”

Evie raised a brow. “You do?”

“No. That was a lie.”

Evie couldn’t help but let out a laugh. This was far from how she’d been expecting her afternoon to go.

“You told a lie? I’m impressed.” Doug still looked at her with wide puppy-dog eyes and it unnerved her.

“Was yours a lie? I can’t blame you, trying to get Charming off your back. He-”

“No, it wasn’t a lie.” She gestured to the letter she was writing. “I do have a boyfriend on the Isle. We’ve been dating for nearly four years, so I don’t plan on that ending anytime soon.”

“Oh!” Doug turned a bright shade of red, and Evie felt of twinge of something — guilt, perhaps? — at his embarrassment.

“We can be friends.” She didn’t know if that was better or worse, but Doug’s face lit up with a genuine smile.

“I’d like that.”

- - -

When the others finally arrived, Carlos was the last with, surprisingly, a dog snuggled happily into his arms.

“Is it stuffed?” Jay leaned closer, jumping slightly when the dog turned to him, tail thumping against Carlos’s arm.

“Guys, this is Dude.” Three pairs of brows raised when Dude licked Carlos’s cheek and the boy smiled.

“Not that I’m not glad you got over your fear of dogs or anything…but…just how did that happen?” Mal asked, for once distracted from the plan.

“Ben!” No one noticed Mal slightly recoil. “When he was helping me practice for tourney, Dude chased me, and Ben showed me just how cute and cuddly he was. Not scary, like Mom said.”

“Don’t tell your Mom. She might want to skin him for his fur. He might make a nice hat-”

“Jay!”

What was supposed to be their plotting session turned into a mess of laughter as Jay and Carlos began doing impressions of Cruella, her high-pitched voice and mimicking the squeaking sounds that would come from her stuffed dog Baby that she insisted was once real.

Evie sat on top of the picnic table, letter tucked away in her bag, laughing alongside them, ignoring just how comfortable the scene made her feel.

Even Mal was relaxed, recalling the subtle pranks they’d play on the woman — just enough to confuse her, but not enough to make her angry, as she would just take that out on Carlos — and how they’d laugh from the shadows.

They talked of the time they added an extra spot to one of Baby’s paws — not even touching on just how difficult it was to get a hold of the thing without Cruella knowing — and how she still hadn’t noticed yet.

They were able to talk of Cruella’s anger, Jafar’s penny-pinching ways, the Queen’s cruel vanity, and Maleficent’s…everything, knowing that they wouldn’t have to face their parents that night, knowing that they had a comfortable bed to sleep in and food to wake up to.

They’d never outright say it, but even after such a short time in Auradon, they felt safe.

Mal would never admit that she didn’t exactly hate not thinking about the Isle or the plan for a little while. She wanted to impress her mother, to prove her competence, but even she was beginning to be blown away by it all.

Sure, everyone was way too prissy, Goodness class was exhausting, and Ben was too…nice and she didn’t know how to handle it, but it was more enjoyable than she was expecting it to be.

And while she had a thing for misery, it was a breath of fresh air to see her friends like this.

#hevie #descendants fanfiction #harry hook x evie #harry hook #evie grimhilde #evie #my ds fics #my fics #fics #amle tag

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jackpotcitycasinoreviewsweb41 · 4 years

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ruffoverthinksthings · 7 years

Note

Since you love Elsa so much. How about Hans? How is he on the Isle and everything else you want to add.

Elsawas never a fan of the Isle of the Lost, to say the least. She hatesthe idea, she hates the implementation, she hates the explicitly saidbelief that a large portion of the population are inherentlyincapable of changing for the better, and that the only solution isto geographically and socially isolate them from the rest of theworld, at the very least.

About the only thing she WAS happy about with the Isle was that itoffered a permanent solution to getting rid of Hans. No longer wouldshe have to worry about him using his smarts and guile to try andstage another, much more violent coup, no longer would she have toworry about him sneaking back under a new identity and worming hisway past their defences, no longer would she have to worry abouttrading nor dealing with the Southern Isles in general–after seeingthe way the King ruled and treated his subjects, Beast passed on themalmost as fast as he does coconut-custard cream cakes.

“Probably because he reminded him too much of himself, exceptmuch more blatant and with fewer delusions,” Elsa says dryly.

She never thought she would ever have to worry about him or hisfamily again. Up until the day comes that Ben announces that the VKprogram is expanding yet again, and this time, he’s looking to havethe other kingdoms try to adopt them, as Auradon Prep is gettingchaotic enough as is, and it’s another step in gaining masssympathy for the eventual, total abolition of the Isle.

Elsa is more than happy to sign up for it, putting a welcomebanner over the gates of the castle (of which, true to her famouswords, are rarely closed and never for long), and making all mannerof accommodations for the VKs and solid, actionable plans for them toeventually make better futures for themselves…

… Up until Ben is legally, socially, morally obliged to tell herthat one of the VKs they’re sending her way is Hans’ niece.

Hans hasn’t had a very good time on the Isle, you see. Alreadyhumiliated like all the other villains, but without the grace ofhaving died an impressive death, and with his brothers knowing andlording over the fact that he was relegated to shoveling manure inthe royal stables for his failed coup, he didn’t stand a chance ofever rising to the top, or even carving out a half-way decent lifefor himself.

Women were wary of his advances because of his reputation, muchstronger and cleverer men than he were all too willing to run himover and he could inspire no loyalty from the craven and thedesperate, and like the Southern Isles, his twelve brothers and hisfather are still better than him, and don’t hesitate to bully himand “remind him of his place.”

Really, about the only good thing that came out of this wholeordeal for him was that Maleficent proves far stronger, cleverer, andeven more ruthless than his father and 11 of his brothers, with theadded benefit that she does not need to sleep, eat, nor get sick.

“One by one, they all fell, beheaded, shot, thrown off a cliff,burned to death, eaten by gators, stabbed in the back, stabbed in thefront, stabbed from below, stabbed from above, mauled by wild dogs,and finally, choked on a rotten, stale eclair delivered in a giftbasket, all because they had the gall to try to challenge Maleficent,seat themselves on the our family’s throne, and were deposed justas quickly.”

Eventually, the only ones left of the former royal family of theSouthern Isles was Hans, his mother, his brother Lars, his wife, andtheir daughter, Heidi. His mother was a strong woman–”you had tobe, to have been married to a man like my father and bore allthirteen of his children”–and figuratively and sometimes literallycarved and hacked out a semi-decent living for them, and Lars and hisfamily was willing to show Hans care, aid, and an outstretched handwithout a concealed dagger in the sleeve.

But alas, they were still mortal, and eventually, sickness oraccident (true or engineered) claimed them, until it was just Hansand Heidi. “Take care of her…” were Lars’ last words, and asrepayment for all the kindness he and his wife had shown him, Hansmade good on them…

… Though not in the way they expected, or would have wanted.

For you see, Hans only saw one way out of this hell, similar tothe one Evil Queen saw for her own daughter, except much morerealistic: ingratiate yourself into the favour of those up top,manipulate them to serve your needs, and ideally, overthrow them andtake their position for yourself so you can skip step two.

For all her life, Heidi has been trained, encouraged, and acted asa “throne grabber,” and would have been the most successful oneon the Isle had it not been for the likes of Evie (the prettiest),Claudine Frollo (the most adventurous and shameless), leaving her tobe the perennial choice if both were currently taken, or you weren’tcharming enough to get them, but didn’t want to lower yourstandards, either.

It’s how she got her insulting nickname from Mal: “Hieny.”

Like her uncle and guardian, she has spent her whole life feelinginvisible, nothing more than a spare, the consolation prize; and likehim, she harbours a deep-seated hatred for the one Hans feels ruinedeverything, even more so than King Beast:

Queen Elsa.

When the new round of VKs included her, both Hans and her werethrilled, seeing it as their chance to finally get revenge. Itwouldn’t be as bloody and violent as Hans—they both knew now thatwouldn’t work, especially because Auradon doesn’t take as kindlyto that as they did BGU—but in the end, Heidi would worm her wayinto the good graces of the royal family, slowly subverting andmanipulating its inner workings, then use her influence and power tobring Hans back and plot a more thorough, satisfying revengewith him.

Indeed, Elsa’s rather chilly (figuratively and literally)reception to her, and how badly Anna is trying to be warm andfriendly to Heidi makes her feel like she’s got this in the bagwith a grand master plan forming in her head: pit the Queen and herbeloved sister against each other, make Anna her ally, and use her asa means to influence the much more powerful Elsa.

It gets even better when she learns from Anna that Elsa does infact have an heir, and that the crown princess of Arendelle afterAnna herself would LOVE to be friends with Heidi. She sees this as anopportunity to get information, an unwitting agent in sabotaging andtaking over Arendelle, and another potential piece of leverageagainst the Queen.

Instead, meeting Silsa is where it all falls apart, as doeseverything Heidi knew and believed to be true about herself, theworld, and what she wants out of life.

You see, Silsa isn’t like the other Royal AK kids.

“I haven’t been the captains of anything or a child genius ina certain field, never was a student leader for non-profitorganizations and charities and whatnot, or have even tried tomaster an instrument or an art that’s off the respectable sort, thekind you dress up all fancy for and pay super expensive tickets toget into a theater of the ‘velvet seats, red carpets, and hardwoodpaneling’ kind.”

For one thing, she’s disqualified from a lot of competitionsbecause of her unfair advantages, much like that of Jane and Jordanwho are ineligible for quiz bees because of their infallible,objective memories. For another thing, she only has one arm and onefully-functioning eye because of incidents when she was younger. Andfinally, most of her time, energy, and indeed, what she can doheavily relies on how many “spoons” she has after dealing withthe fact that she literally has ice in her veins–”turns outthat’s not exactly the best thing to have inside the humanbody…”

As Heidi learns, Silsa was “Pinocchio, except things wenthorribly wrong at the end.”

Pestered repeatedly for an heir, unwilling to marry, and notamenable to the idea of being severely limited in her activities fornine months (and that’s not even getting into the potential risks),Elsa took a page out of Gepetto’s book (and several more out of“Wizards of Auradon City” magazines) and built her own, a hybridsnowcreature and robot with as complex of an artificial intelligenceas she could make it.

The court was not impressed, until after Anna messed with Silsa’scode and accidentally gave her sentience through the sheer ineleganceof her writing, and Elsa’s “failsafe” subroutines’ attemptsto fix it. Having passed the Turing Test and shown herself to be morethan capable of being “human,” the Blue Fairy was allowed to takeher wand back and bring her to life.

“And it was at that moment that we learned that modern science,dad (Elsa) and mom’s (Anna) coding, 1st Century AGUalloys and metal composites, winter magic, and Blue Fairy magicREALLY don’t mix too good.”

Aside from the above mentioned issue of her magic chronic illness,Silsa has what she describes as “the ability to process andcompletely understand the fact that ultimately, nothing we doreally matters, and that all oflife is absurd.”

Alongside learning what clinical depression stemming from anexistential crisis in an artificially created human looks like, Heidilearns a lot from Silsa: the other side of the story of Frozenand how life in the Southern Isles really was, howto do “regular teenager things” instead of carrying the wholeweight of her legacy on her shoulders all the time, and a big problemin her life plans that she’s been ignorant of this whole time:

“And after you take-over my parents’ kingdom, then what?”

Heidi blinks. “What do you mean, ‘then what?’”

“’Then, what are you going to do with all your power, your dadback with you, and my dad as your own personal puppet?’” Silsareplies. “Do you start to hold important trade routes ransom tosway the other states? Do you pull out of the Trade Triumvirate andmake Arendelle an isolationist country before you completely secedefrom the Auradon Alliance? Do you try and bring Arendelle back to ourhome realm so you can annex it with the original Southern Isles andrule that?”

Heidi stares at her, her mouth agape, and all is silent for along, long time. “I… I don’t know. I… hadn’t thought aboutthat… but I’ll figure it out!”

Silsa nods. “You really should, you know, ask yourself ‘Whyam I even doing this?’ Maybe you’ll remind yourself of whyyou started and get a big ole motivational boost, or maybe you’llrealize it’s all pointless and all of you have been wasting yourtime and effort—either way, you’ll know the truth.”

“Won’t I have one of those ‘existential crisis’ that madeyou such a big ball of sunshine and rainbows?” Heidi asks warily.

Silsa shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not—that’s kinda the worst thingabout them, you never know what might trigger them, and they’renever subtle about it. Just one moment, you’re having a so-so day,then BOOM! Questioning everything you’ve ever done and ever will.

“But we’re getting beside the point: do you really want tojust keep on going, without ever really knowing, and risk still notknowing when you finally do get it? Like a dog that finally caughtits own tail.

“I see it all the time, you know, people working for somethingwithout really knowing why. That new car, that new house, that newpromotion… they work so hard, they work so much, and they sacrificeso many things, like their health, their families, their sanity…

“… And I just want to ask them, ‘Is it really all worthit?’”

“Of course it is!” Heidi says quickly. “Why do youeven ask that?”

Silsa looks her in the eyes, one turquoise, the other a fadedblue, staring into two green ones. “Because no one’s answer hasyet to make me stop asking the question.”

Heidi looks away. “Or maybe you just refuse to accept the truth,that that’s all there really is.”

Silsa nods. “Maybe, yeah.”

Silence once more.

“… You’re a strange one, Silsa.” Heidi mutters.

Silsa smiles. “I know.”

* Silsa refers to Elsa as “dad” after Anna related the time Elsa complained that she was rarely ever there to be a parent to her because of all her duties.

“I feel like the stereotypical father from all those London sitcoms,” Elsa says as she’s slumped exhausted into a couch. “Works all day and only ever sees his children at night, only ever hanging out with them on the weekends, and even then with projects involving wood and cars and hunting, never just sitting down and talking.”

“Aww, don’t say that, Elsa: you’re a great mother to Silsa,” Anna says.

“You’re more a mother to her than I’ll ever be…” Elsa replies, and the nicknames forever stuck.

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likeateatray-inthesky · 7 years

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Observational Purposes || Doug & Mal

There weren’t a whole lot of people that Malinda could reasonably talk to about her work without arousing suspicion. Most people in school were far too clever to anticipate what it was that she was planning to do. So she needed to find someone that probably wouldn’t catch on as quickly. Doug had been in her year once upon a time. He was always easily distracted, she remembered that much. He was smart, but not necessarily quick, and that was what she needed. If she recalled correctly - it had been a long time, after all - he’d been interested in their Care of Magical Creatures class, she just hoped that was still the case. The end of the school year had come and gone, and everyone was getting ready to go home the next day on the train. Malinda, however, had been packed for a while, and was on a mission for something else. So as she roamed the halls, she asked a few young Hufflepuffs if they knew where Doug could be found, and they pointed out toward the quidditch pitch. She thanked them profusely and gathered her research in her bag and headed out there, hopeful.

It didn’t take long for her gaze to settle on the familiar mop of blond hair. They hadn’t necessarily been friends, but Malinda had gone out of her way to introduce herself to most people as a little fifth year, wanting to create those “lasting teenage friendships” as her mother had so poorly put it. Clearly, most of them didn’t stick, as she didn’t really stay close with most of the people she’d attempted to make friends with. Now, she was just hoping he’d remember her.

“Hey, Doug!” she called out as he landed. She clutched her bag close to her side as she made her way over to him, a bright but nervous smile on her face. “I don’t know if you remember me, it’s been awhile since we’ve had a class together. I’m Malinda, we had Care of Magical Creatures together?” she said, more in the form of a question than a statement. “I was wondering if you might be able to help me with something?”

Doug was not the brightest bulb in the pack. He wasn’t the fastest on a broomstick or the smartest cookie in the bunch. But he was Doug, and that spoke for a lot when it came to measurable traits – at least, to Doug it did. He liked to assume it applied to other people as well, but what could he say? He wasn’t the best mind-reader, either.

The Hufflepuff was completely unaware as the Gryffindor girl wandered up behind him, his brown eyes screwed up tight as he very vigorously was trying to clean off a scuff along the handle of his broom. It may have been an older piece of equipment, but it was one of the nearest and dearest things in his life (aside from his stuffed Squirrel, of course). Because of this, he did his very best to keep appearances up, even if the supposed scuffs he saw were actually just patterns on the wood Doug hadn’t noticed.

Doug bolted upright and nearly out of his skin at the holler, whirling around on his toes and dropping into a ready stance. Broom forgotten, he cocked his head at the girl then straightened like a rocket, throwing his arm into an exuberant wave that matched his face-splitting grin perfectly.

“Hi there!” he chirped. He blinked and almost just as fast, he was halfway to the other, to make her journey easier. Doug’s gaze flicked to the way she held her bag, and then the bag itself (it had pretty colors on it), before floating back up to her face. He rocked back and forth on his toes. “I remember everyone, silly. I always like to remember my friends, especially when I am around the creatures.”

Doug paused, chewing his lower lip as he decided if he should mention her performance in the class. He was surprised he remembered that at all; Doug shrugged and blew past it. “You are Malinda. You are nice, and I like nice people, so I will help you. I will be happy to help a nice Malinda!”

Doug got really close really fast, and Malinda had to take a solid few seconds to sort through what had just happened. She might be good at pretending she was completely present in whatever situation she was in, but when it actually came down to things, it took her a lot longer to process everything. Her lack of sleep and the fact that she still hadn’t really had a whole lot of time to properly grieve was taking a toll on her. With the added stress of work and graduation, Malinda was definitely struggling. As she listened to him ramble, she chuckled softly. He hadn’t changed, that much was clear. He was still the sweet and a little dopey kid she’d tried to befriend before.

“Thank you so much,” she responded with similar enthusiasm. “I’ve never been really good with magical creatures, and for my job, I have to do a lot of research on Dementors…I’ve pretty much exhausted all of my other options, I was wondering if you might know where I could find some information on them, like the places they dwell, what attracts them most, that sort of thing? The more specific the better, of course, this is for professional purposes. And naturally, I’d give you credit where credit is due with my presentation.” It wasn’t necessarily a presentation, but she would have to present something to her boss, and she needed all the research materials she could get for her own books and knowledge and future use. The term worked in this context. “I’ve done a few drafts already, and I just don’t think I have enough information. And you’re the only person I could think of that would be good with this sort of thing. You’re super smart,” she added, hoping the compliment would make him more willing to help her out. Usually when people talked about dementors or other dark creatures, they shied away from the subject, and she would expect that from Doug, too, but his happy and helpful demeanor she hoped she could kind of use to her advantage if she played her cards right.

In a flash the world turned cold around Doug and he stumbled and nearly face-planted at her feet. Dementors. Dementors. The word sent all his smiles and happiness screaming from his veins; the Hufflepuff shrank two sizes right then and there.

“You…you said…” he stammered softly. Wide brown eyes flicked from her face, to the ground, to the sky behind her, to her again, searching fervently for any sign that she was just playing a (very cruel) joke on him. Doug’s voice dropped to a near-whisper and he began to fidget with his sleeves. “Dementors…”

A silence fell around him, a stillness that wasn’t at all common for someone like the regularly beaming Hufflepuff Seeker. At the back of his mind, he remembered the pages on Dementors in his Care of Magical Creatures texts, how even the bare-bones description had made him run crying under his parents’ bed in the summer of last year. Or was it two years ago? Either way, Doug had been scared of them forever…and not just because of the books.

But Malinda had come to him for help. He could help someone. He could make them happy and impress them and then he could kinda-sorta-maybe be a Cool Cat to her. Doug’s mum called interesting people Cool Cats, and ever since, all Doug wanted was to be one of them. Could this be his moment? If he got over his fear, could he be cool and interesting and a good boy, like he wanted? The Hufflepuff sunk his teeth deeper into his lower lip and shifted in place; his fingertips had gone cold and his hands themselves were starting to shake. But if he helped…

Eventually the boy gave a small squeak of affirmation that maybe, just maybe, he knew more than the average person about the terrible creatures. “I do not like Dementors,” he said softly, somehow willing himself to still and speak more evenly. “They take happy things and make them disappear. I do not like to think…” He had to stop, but his head continued, ‘Of what they could do to me’.

The change in Doug’s demeanor was almost immediate, and Malinda worried briefly that he wouldn’t help her either. For a moment, she was sure he’d hit the deck as though there was an impending attack, but he managed to keep himself upright and still kind of functioning. And he did confirm that he might be able to help her more than the average person. She’d talked to a man in Knockturn Alley when her research had all started about his encounters with them, but most of it was said in a tone that she took as more of an embellishment to the story than the actual story. It would be nice to hear what someone who didn’t live for terrifying innocent girls had to say.

As he started to speak, Malinda had to lean in just a little bit to hear what he was saying. She had to stop herself from rolling her eyes as he stated the obvious, things she’d learned long ago and had had written down ten different ways in her notebooks. “But what gets their attention?” she asked gently, seeing that this conversation was really getting to him. “Have you ever seen one?” she continued, realising that that was probably the reason he was so shaken by her questions.

His gaze snapped to her face and he nearly hissed, “Fear. Fear gets their attention. Fear and suffering and noise – but not noise you can make out loud.” Doug shuffled his feet, tugging at his sleeve as he tried very hard to not look her in the eye. He hated to admit that he felt bad for almost-snapping his response at her, but deep inside he knew it was warranted because he was scared. And he was scared – but his need to help was stronger than anything else at the moment.

Sometimes Doug really wished he wasn’t so nice.

There was a second part to her questioning. The Hufflepuff bit his lower lip and pressed on. “They can…they know…the noise in your mind. In your insides. They can tell when you’re thinking bad things, awful things, but also when you are thinking good.”

Doug lifted his face to hers, his puppy-eyes wide and vulnerable, but holding tight to a feeble courage he had to reach deep-down to find. “Deep in the trees, past the spiders and the Occamy nests. I found them, when I was little – but it was an accident, I swear!” For a moment Doug’s gaze was panicked, beseeching her to understand that he didn’t mean to do anything wrong. His lip quivered and his voice dropped again. “There are Dementors in the forest.”

The forest. It was that easy. Malinda should have known, what with all the other creatures deep in the woods, but of course, it hadn’t even crossed her mind until it was right in front of her. Getting past the acromantulas was going to be a bit of a bear, but she could probably find some way around them or a few spells to help blast any away that get too close. She was taking note of the things he said, really not paying much attention to his reactions.

The additional information Doug gave her about how they’re drawn to a person gave her pause. She was always under the impression that they were only drawn to the bad, not the good as well. That would make things a little more difficult, but she was fairly certain she could still manage it. Just don’t think about anything. That would work…maybe. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for her. “Doug, you have seriously given me the most helpful information today. Thank you so much,” she praised, smiling up at him, even going as far to lean up and press a kiss to his cheek. “You’re very smart, you know that?” she added, the smile on her face growing. Finally, she was getting somewhere. Some personal observations were just what she needed to get going on the next version of her potion.

Doug thought he did good. He wanted to have done good. He wanted it more than anything in the whole wide world, and yet, even as Malinda was praising him, there was a nagging in his heart of hearts that told him something was not right at all. She thought he was smart, though, she thought he was helpful. Doug’s resolve faltered, and he began to gnaw at his lower lip.

“I…thank you,” he said. He tried for a smile, but only came up with a weak lip twitch. His eyes were wary and his fingers started to twitch. Doug couldn’t stay still for very long. “You – you promise you will not do anything dumb, yes?” he asked softly. He had to make sure; his expression was earnest as he looked into her face. “I would not want you to do anything dumb. You might get hurt if you did that, and it…it would be my fault.”

Malinda didn’t notice the change in his demeanor, she thought it was still about the fact that he was having to talk about these creatures that clearly had a negative impact on him. So she adjusted her bag on her shoulder and made to leave when he stumbled over his question. It gave her pause, because she didn’t want to lie to him, but she couldn’t tell him what she was about to do because then he would try to stop her, and she definitely couldn’t have that.

She gave him a noncommittal shrug and a reassuring smile. “It wouldn’t be your fault, Doug. Anything I do, I do because it was my decision. But you don’t need to worry, okay? I’ll be fine,” she said gently, hoping he’d just take her at her word and not press into it or try to convince her not to do the thing he suspected she was about to do. Malinda didn’t really give him a whole lot of time to respond, though, before she turned on her heel and left with a quick wave.

Once she was safely out of his view, Malinda pulled her bag off her shoulder and thumbed through a few of the books in it, hoping for something, anything, to help her get through this alive. She had an arsenal of spells up her sleeve, as well as a number of potions and knick knacks from joke shops and the likes that might be of use to her. Malinda was the type to come prepared. She honestly never knew where a day was going to take her, but usually, she didn’t need everything she packed in her bag. Good thing, too, otherwise it would mean she probably got attacked on a daily basis. Today, though, it looked like a good portion of it was going to come in handy, not that she minded. At least she was prepared.

Securing her bag over her torso once again, Malinda stood and started off toward the forest, trying desperately not to let her nerves get to her. She could totally do this, just…get through the rest of the nightmare first. She nodded to herself like that would help her be more decisive in her actions, and she almost tricked herself into thinking it worked. The nerves still went through her, though. Fear, however, didn’t. She wasn’t afraid of what might be waiting in the woods for her, she was certain she’d be able to handle it, but she was worried about when she found the dementors–if she found them–and how she was going to find her way back out.

Getting there was the easy part.

The first hundred yards or so of the forest, Malinda was familiar with. Very familiar with. She’d spent lots of her spare time in it gathering plants or reading in the low branches of a tree or writing in the brush, her back pressed to some log or another. She’d made unlikely acquaintances with a few of the centaurs that had come a little too close to the school grounds or had been on a patrol while expanding their claim on the woods. For the most part, they didn’t bother her or even really talk to her unless she was getting to close to the heart of their land, but that rarely happened. In fact, she could only really remember one time. And even then, they’d been understanding considering she’d been lost. Now, however, she was going to be walking right through their territory like it was nothing, and she wasn’t afraid. They could huff and threaten all they wanted, but Malinda was on a mission.

It was odd, though, as soon as she’d walked into their territory, things were quiet. Definitely more quiet than usual. She couldn’t really place what was wrong, but she had a bad feeling about it. A few more hundred yards in, and she still hadn’t heard rustling other than that of the wind, and she hadn’t come across any centaurs, either. That was more than strange, it was concerning. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t really heard any life at all, no birds or insects or small game. She wondered if maybe there was some spell gone wrong or everything was sleeping and tried to push past it. Something nagged in the back of her head with every step, though, that there was definitely something wrong. Sighing softly, Malinda continued to trudge on, putting her worries out of her mind. She was on a mission.

She’d probably been walking for close to an hour, and the light of day that had been shining so brightly before was starting to severely fade in the forest. It just couldn’t penetrate the thick forest, and Malinda pulled a small flashlight out of her bag, clicking it on and continuing down the rough sort of path that was laid out in front of her. It was definitely the path from an animal, but it gave her something to work with, and something to keep her off the flora on the forest floor. She wanted to leave a little damage behind her as possible. It wasn’t much longer before she was starting to see large webs covering the branches of the trees and across the path between bushes. The further she got, the more things were just covered in these massive webs, looking more like Halloween decorations than intricate spider’s webs. She felt as though eyes were on her from every direction, and honestly, they probably were, but still she marched on.

Some twigs snapped and leaves were crushed to each side of her, and she could see, in the darkness, shapes stalking her, but she kept her eyes and flashlight forward. Malinda didn’t even notice as the webs started to thin out again because the woods were becoming thicker and had more trees and less underbrush. The forest floor, now, looked like veins in every direction from the roots of the trees, and it was something amazing to behold. A large part of her wanted to stop and take notes and maybe a few pictures, but she knew that if she did, she’d probably become dinner. Just as she was thinking it, she heard a clicking sound off to her right and something tugged at her bag as it laid against her hip. Her heart started to race and she pulled her wand out before she could think and shouted stupefy at whatever it was. As she opened her eyes, she watched as the stunned body of what was easily the largest goddamned spider she had ever seen in her life go flying back. There was more rustling after that, and Malinda didn’t linger to see what was going to happen. Her heart jump started her feet, and she took off like a bullet, doing her best not to trip on just about every root in her path. A few time she stumbled, but she managed to make it almost a football field before face planting, her foot hooked on a root as her face smacked into another one.

Her head rang from the impact, and she looked around, wondering where the flashlight had gone when she’d fallen since it wasn’t in her hand anymore. The scurrying was still behind her, but still far enough in the distance that she could take a second or two and regain her composure before taking off again. It wasn’t long enough to look for the light, but she still had her wand. As she started running, she pulled her wand out and lit it, going for as bright of a light as she could manage, needing to see as much of the ground at once as possible. She ran for as long as she could, her legs numb by the time she came to a stop against a giant, gnarled tree, leaning against it for support and panting heavily.

Malinda looked around at her new surroundings, and it, honestly, didn’t look much different than before except what she thought before was quite was as loud as a rock concert compared to the silence that surrounded her now. Each move she made from this moment on was deliberate. She knew she was getting close. Her head still throbbed, and as she touched her forehead, her hand came away slick, though with the lack of lighting, she could only assume it was blood. She smelled the liquid and turned her nose up at the metallic scent as she wiped her hand on her jeans. Yes, she was bleeding, yes, she was in pain, no, she wasn’t going anywhere. Not when she was this close. As she stepped around the tree, she was careful not to make any noise. She forced her breathing to slow and become nearly silent, and she was very careful about where she stepped, not wanting to bring attention to herself.

There, before her, were more trees, but there was a stream of light that managed to make it through the thick tree tops, lighting up a portion of the scene before her. There, floating around the light and in it were hooded figures draped in tattered black cloth. As she exhaled, Malinda could see her breath before her, and that was when she realised just how cold it had gotten. Adrenaline had been pumping in her system, making her oblivious to a lot of the changes around her as she’d come to a stop. Now, though, she was able to really focus and pull as much information from them as she could.

There was an odd sort of beauty to these dark creatures, how they were drawn to the small amount of light in these dark woods, how just being close to them instilled a sort of fear in her. They were terrifying, Doug hadn’t been wrong about that, but they were also amazingly beautiful creatures. Malinda knew better, though, she knew what they were also capable of. Still, she wasn’t able to resist getting a closer look. So with a tight grip on her wand, Malinda started inching closer, shivering as she continued moving into the cold front the dementors brought with them.

She would pause every time she reached the next tree, her goal being the stream of light. Dementors had no faces, and for all intents and purposes shouldn’t even be able to sense her presence. But they went deeper than senses and delved into your mind, and surely they knew she was there already. Malinda couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t attacked. Maybe because she didn’t give them a reason to? She wasn’t really intruding or bothering them, maybe they’d just let her be.

It couldn’t be that easy.

Not two seconds later did Malinda take the wrong step and snap a twig. By this point, she was well within forty feet of the dementors that swirled around the beam of light, and she hoped that the sound of the twig would just pass by and not draw attention. For a moment, she thought it would. Then the figures slowly started to move toward her, the ones that led the pack swooping in quickly, making Malinda fall to her knees in order to avoid being hit. The cold air rushed around her like a flurry, black cloth whipping about just as fast, the sound assaulting her ears. She closed her eyes to try and block it out, shrink down until they left when it felt like someone had put a vacuum up to her mouth and was trying to suck out every bit of happiness. She didn’t have the energy to open her eyes or lift her wand, and every time the feeling went away, she slumped against the tree she’d tried to cower against. It’d only be a few seconds, though, until the cold would fill her body again, and darkness would cloud her mind, taking away all the good things in the world.

Behind her eyelids, she saw everything she loved. Her family, her friends, her home and her bedroom and all the comforts it held. She saw memories of her and her siblings, memories of Sammy. Glimpses of her fingers intertwined with PJ’s, late night conversations with May from years before things had gotten hard. Malinda was barely aware of the fact that tears were falling down her face, honestly, she was barely aware of anything until she hit the ground, crumpled up and partially on her back, the ground as cold as the air around her that settled into her bones. There was nothing but the cold. A blank slate.

He shouldn’t have let her go. He shouldn’t have let her walk away without pushing to make sure she was telling the truth. He shouldn’t have assumed the best and watched her turn and wander off to what he hoped was a completely normal day. He shouldn’t have done all these things, but now that they were done, Doug’s heart was in his throat and his eyes were round as saucers and he couldn’t get his little Hufflepuff legs to move fast enough to the place he never wanted to return to in his life. Visions of trees and spiders scratched at his memories, and suddenly, for just a flash, he was a first year again.

The darkness was tactile as the herd of eleven year olds were rushed to the edge of the black lake. There was no semblance of order amidst the bobbing heads and absent, youthful chatter. A tall, broad figure led the way, and his booming voice offered trivia about the areas of the grounds the students passed. Doug listened, wide-eyed, to every word that voice had to offer.

“The Black Lake,” it said, “is as deep as it is black. Y’know, some even say there are worlds beneath those waters. Worlds full of people we can’t even imagine, living among the sea monsters and weeds at the bottom, leading lives completely different from any of our land-based ones.”

Mop-headed even then, the boy bounced in place, the tips of his outstretched hand barely making it above the tallest student’s head in the group. “You mean like mermaids? And – and Grindylows?” Doug liked to think that it was because of this man that he had become so attached to Care of Magical creatures. He spoke so sincerely about them, it was hard for the future Hufflepuff not to pay attention.

The man began to nod, then reached a hand back to ruffle the young Doug’s hair. “Yessiree, just like them. And I’ll tell ya someth – hey!” The leader turned sharply and stormed at a pair of boys knee-deep in the lake, laughing and splashing and completely disobeying the rules.

The entire pack went silent all at once, then all of a sudden every body was rushing past Doug, shoving him back to the pack and beyond as they chattered about “punishments” and “dungeons” and “being fed to Harpies” by the man Doug had been listening to. Jabbing elbows and shoving arms pushed him further and further into the back, then onto the grass lining the Lake’s shore, then beyond and into the first stretch of trees that made up the Forbidden Forest. Doug stumbled over a tree root and landed hard on his rear, his too-big robes ripped and wrinkled all around him. Being still very young of mind, he nearly started to cry, but that’s when out of the corner of his eye, his first serious Hogwarts distraction came into play.

It was the glint of a beak, right below intelligent eyes that watched Doug from deep within the woods. Immediately Doug’s tears stops and he pushed himself onto his knees. Crawling forward a few feet, the boy reached a hand towards the beak without an ounce of fear, but the eyes disappeared deeper into the woods, as if asking the boy to follow.

And, not being the brightest especially then, Doug followed.

“Wait,” called his shrill, prepubescent voice. “I – I just want…to be your friend!” Doug jumped over a large toadstool, hiked up his robes around his waist, and pushed deeper. “Pl-please, please slow down. Birdie, I just…slow – wahhhhh!”

As the boy went to jump over a second patch of mushrooms, a loose patch of mud came free beneath his feet and suddenly he was tumbling head-over-heels down a hill he hadn’t known was there. His mouth was full of sticks and leaves, and his arms were full of scratches, but no matter how hard he tried to stop himself, the hill just inclined sharper. Fear burst in waves through the boy’s tiny frame and tears burned ferociously at his heart. His fingers burned where Doug had tried to dig into the ground, but still, he was sliding, falling, tumbling down to the bottom of somewhere nobody would ever find him.

And then it all stopped.

Whimpering in a ball, it took the dazed boy a good few minutes to push up the courage to get himself into a standing position. Everything hurt and the world was spinning, but there he was – on his own two feet. He couldn’t see a thing around him (perhaps because of the mud in his eyes), and it was significantly colder now wherever he had rolled to. Doug put out a hand to guide himself and he shuffled himself slowly forward a bit.

“H…hello?” he cried meekly, free hand rubbing furiously at his eyes. The area still remained dark, but then again, it was night time in the middle of a forest. “I…I fell…”

Something swished across the ground behind him, and the boy whirled. “Is someone there? Please – I have to get back. I’m gonna…I’m gonna be a wizard…and I’m so scared…”

Another swishing, this time from the opposite side, as a freezing cold piece of cloth brushed his torn-up arm. Doug jumped back, right into another sweeping robe, and he let out a terrified squeal and jolted the other direction. His eyes were adjusting now and all around him he could see towering, robed figures. They had no faces. The air around them was cold as ice. And the only sensation he could feel with them near was fear.

And then, out of absolutely nowhere, the shriek of an angry bird ripped through the area and a large mass burst right through the wall of cloaked fiends. Wings as long as a Hogwarts table buffeted the air around the creatures as Doug cowered with his face in his hands. The new being snapped its beak and reared its clawed feet through the intruders, cantering in small circles around the boy, hooves falling heavily into the mulch until every last robed beast had fled elsewhere into the forest. Doug’s breath came in sharp, shallow waves and he could feel what was left of his strength fail him, shrinking with his tiny body into the earth as the yellow eyes and shining beak nudged his cheek curiously. They were the last things Doug saw before the world went dark.

Back in present-day, the Hufflepuff opened his eyes and pushed himself to move faster. Doug had been a mere boy the last time he had been in the woods, and now, years later, he was returning as a man.

Well.

Kind of.

Wand gripped tightly in his hand, Doug’s feet were a blur as he raced headlong into the forest, his normally scattered mind focused tightly on one thing and one thing only: his friend. He was embarrassed to admit how long it had taken him to clue in that he had led her straight into something that was very likely to be her doom. He was even more ashamed that if it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t be in this mess, and he wouldn’t be heading straight back to where his childhood nightmares had begun.

But no matter what, he was loyal to a fault. Doug may not have been a Gryffindor, but he had a heart that could be brave if it wanted to be. He may not have been a Ravenclaw, but when someone was in need, he would use every ounce of brainpower to make sure they got back safe. He may not be a Slytherin, but – well, Doug was just glad he wasn’t a Slytherin in the first place.

I’m coming, Malinda, Doug thought to himself. His teeth were clamped tightly and his hands were clammy around his wand. This is my fault and I’m sorry, and I am going to fix it. And then an idea struck him, and the proud Hufflepuff veered off into the opposite direction Malinda would have been heading.

A few minutes later, Doug was crashing through the trees on the back of a beast with wings as long as a Hogwarts table and eyes as yellow as a candle’s flame. A sharp beak ripped and slashed at acromantula webs as they soared along, and as the hippogriff’s dagger claws tore up the underbrush, Doug sent a silent thank you to the people that taught him how strong a boy like him could be when it came to relationships with magical beasts. Stubby fingers dug into the fur-feathers at the equine’s shoulders as those words faded into the darkness, eyes squeezing tight, lips forming into an incantation just as, like many years before, the hippogriff burst through the wall of Dementors and saved the day again.

At the last moment, Doug shoved himself from the back of the beast and pointed his wand straight at the hooded devils, looking the perfect part of a teddy bear Lancelot saving the day with a magic stick.

“Expecto…PATRONUM!!”

Searing white light burst from the tip of Doug’s humble want, illuminating the clearing in vibrant streaks of silver magic that quickly wrapped around the Dementors and immediately started to push them back. A large tangle of magic started to weave together to form a great, bounding shape. Four paws emerged, then a sweeping tail, then finally a wrinkled muzzle set below a pair of floppy, pressed-back ears. White, glowing teeth snapped vivid sparks into the darkness; Doug butt-scooted his way back from their length until he ran into the limp, cold form of his Gryffindor friend.

The massive retriever lowered its head and snapped again, then slowly, one paw at a time began to advance on the remaining dark beings in the clearing. Its hackles started to raise and its teeth seemed to lengthen with every step. Then, without any warning, the Patronus leaped at the Dementor nearest to it and shredded its maw through its robes. A second later, it bounded to the second, then the third, then all around the circle of black cloaks until every Dementor had taken to the sky and was fleeing as fast as they could go. Once its job was done, the golden – or silver – retriever cocked its head at its caster and sat heavily at his side, easing into a lying position that half-curled its body around the unconscious girl.

Memories of his friends still flooding his mind, Doug leaned over Malinda’s limp body and could not suppress the whimper of fear that left his lips. With just that one sound, the silvery dog flickered and vanished. The hippogriff clucked its beak at the sudden darkness and took the Patronus’s place.

“Oh…” Doug whispered. “What have I done?” He glanced wide-eyed over at his equine companion, lower lip quivering. In response, the beast lowered itself to the ground, bowing its head in permission. The boy slipped his robes off clumsily and wrapped them tightly around the girl, then used what little strength he had left to hoist her onto the space between the great beast’s wings. Doug ripped a portion of one of sleeves off and used it to awkwardly tie the girl to the creature, then wobbled to his feet himself. His mind was clear, almost as clear as it had been when he had gotten his warning letters from the school, and in the moment he knew every action counted.

What felt like an eternity later, Doug half-sprinted, half-stumbled into the Care of Magical Creatures cottage and grabbed the nearest teacher he could find. He gasped, “Birdie. Down,” and the hippogriff obliged, almost immediately taking flight as soon as the Gryffindor was free. Normally Doug would have waved goodbye, but this time he followed as Malinda was half-dragged towards the castle, all the while trying to get a thought to leave his already panic-jumbled mind.

Doug didn’t know if she was alive.

Malinda might have been dead.

Doug might have killed one of the only true friends he’d ever had.

And it was all his fault.

#para:observational purposes #para:doug #doug #tw:near death #tw:injury #it's minor tho #also dementors #bc mal went and did another dumb thing #a l s o this is happening on the last day they are at hogwarts #old

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totalfanfreak · 7 years

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One of Three - Chapter 7

One of Three Chapter 7 - Courses of Waiting Miracles

Sera came to with Shep licking her face and whimpering, feeling like she had been stampeded by buffalo. She felt heavy like she couldn’t support her weight, that the air was made of bricks, but seeing her sister laying so still across the room she lifted herself up and crawled over to her.

She whispered to her, shaking her shoulder. “Selene, Selene, are you okay, did they hurt you?”

Her sister’s head slowly turned her eyes so wide with fear. “Are they gone?”

“I don’t know.”

“When I saw you collapse, I wanted to help, but I thought if I fainted they’d leave us both alone. I’m sorry, Sera.”

Sera rubbed her back. “Don’t be sorry, you did well. But we have to move now, remember the hollow space behind inside the closet?”

“Where we used to hide when we were little?”

“Yeah, I want you to hide there now; don’t make a sound until I come to you.”

Selene was shaking her head, sitting up and grabbing for Sera. “We can’t separate, if they’re still here, what if they…”

“I know, but I know one of the places dad kept a gun. Hopefully the lines aren’t dead and we can call the police. But we need something to protect us while they get here.”

Tears glistened in Selene’s eyes. “Oh, God, daddy.”

“We can’t do that now, okay, I’m sad too, but we got to get Sapph and mom and get out of here. We got to be strong now, we got to be smarter than them.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Yes, you can, you have to. Now come on.”

Checking out the doorway the hall seemed vacant letting the girls make their way upstairs. Going inside the hall closet, Sera helped remove the false paneling that revealed the tiny space.

“I want you to hide in here. I’d leave Shep with you but I’m afraid his growling will attract someone. Here.”

Getting out her tiny pocket knife she handed it to Selene. One of them actually finds their way in here, you stab until you can’t anymore, you understand?”

Selene looked sad but nodded. “Yes.”

“Good, I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Selene’s hand darted out at the last second, gripping Sera’s. “Be careful.”

Sera tried to smile. “I’ll do my best.”

Sera woke up on overly starched sheets, hearing beeping coming from beside her.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. I’ll get the doctor for you.”

She jumped at the voice, blinking open her eyes as the beeping sped up to the rhythm of her heart.

She was in a hospital, something she should have guessed by the smell alone.

“Good to see you’re up, Miss Shafir.”

She licked her lips. “How do you know my name?”

The doctor took the chart, skimming its pages before smiling at her. “The EMT’s found your identification in your wallet. I’m sure you know what you experienced was a grand mal seizure, brought on by the stress of your fear from the situation you were in, but seeing that you’re able to talk and your body functions are fine so it didn’t have any repercussions. You’re very lucky you made it to your side, if you had kept to your back the accumulation of saliva could’ve choked you.”

She already knew that, it was the reason she had commanded her body to do so before losing control. “Where’s my dog?”

“Don’t worry he’s in safe hands. He’s at the shelter marked and ready for you to pick up.”

“So can I leave?”

The doctor continued to smile, egging her nerves. “The authorities will come in to ask you some questions after you eat and get your vitals checked. We had to sedate you to ease your symptoms. It may help you if you were before you left; you’ve been through quite an ordeal.”

“I’d rather have a level head when I leave. I’m guessing I’m prohibited from driving so I’d rather be aware when I’m in a cab.”

The doctor’s tapped his pen on the clipboard. “You’re right, Miss Shafir, you shouldn’t be behind the wheel for at least a week, let your body settle, but under cases like this we’ll need someone to pick you up and sign you out.”

“What?”

“I’m afraid you’ll need someone to escort out, it’s the hospital’s policy. It’s to ensure your safety.”

“Well, what if I don’t have anyone to call?”

He smiled again and she wanted to hit him. “Then you’ll be allowed to stay overnight until you’re well enough to leave tomorrow.”

She wasn’t staying here, and she wasn’t leaving Shep in a dingy cage. “I’ll figure out someone to call.”

“Great. The nurse will be in shortly, make sure to eat to refuel yourself.”

She kept her mouth shut, beyond irritated. There had been a murder in her apartment building, she had seen the a woman’s life draining from her, and she did nothing to help her. Having that fucker come in acting like she had done something amazing by rolling over irked her tremendously, and now she had the police to deal with. She choked down her tiny box of cornflakes, letting the sour orange juice rinse it down while the nurse checked her blood pressure and pulse.

“Now just let me look at your eyes and we’ll be done.”

The nurse was just as jolly as the doctor, and she wondered when hospitals were taken over by pod people. The brightness of the penlight made her shrink back on the bed as her lids were propped open by the nurse’s gloved fingers.

“Your pupils are still dilated but that’s normal under stressful events.”

“You people make it sound like I flunked a test instead seeing a woman fighting for her life…is it…is it possible she made it?”

The nurse’s chirpy demeanor faltered then, giving Sera brief satisfaction. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that, ma’am.”

Sera sat up straighter on the bed. “Can you tell me if it would’ve made a difference if I’d been able to call the police instead of spazzing on the floor? Or if I’d stayed to help with the bleeding?”

The nurse patted her hand. “There’s nothing you could have done to change things, don’t let yourself feel guilty. None of it was your doing, and you’re here, alive, focus on that.”

With that the nurse left, leaving Sera hating herself even more. Yep, once again here she was, alive, someone else dying in her stead. Maybe she should be grateful, maybe she should thank God for looking out for her. But she didn’t, she wanted to curse Him. Why keep choosing her life over someone else’s?

Someone who probably deserved to live more than her? It never made sense. She wasn’t devout, she tried to be a good person but she didn’t do as much in the world as she should, she had broken the commandments, some to survive, but did it matter? If God was the one keeping her here couldn’t He have chosen someone more worthy?

“Miss Shafir? Are we disturbing you?”

An older man, with shaggy graying hair peeked through her door.

“Are you here to ask me questions?”

“Yes, ma’am, me and my partner here, we’ll try to make it as brief as we can, we know you’ve been through a lot.”

“Thank you.”

The other man was younger, short brown hair spiked up. “I’m Detective Greenly and this is Detective Dolly.”

“Nice to meet you both.”

They gave her sympathetic smiles, pulling up the chairs that were in her room.

“You reside in the complex there?”

“Yes, my apartment is diagonal from –“

Her lip trembled. “I don’t even know her name.”

“Mrs. Tovia, it’s okay, take deep breaths, we’re not here to upset you. We just want to get some answers.”

“I know. Yeah, I’ve lived there the past eight months, never did more than wave to her on passing each other.”

“May we ask what made you go into her apartment?”

She nodded. “My dog, the door there was open, and he started whimpering at it. I called in to tell them, but everything was dark, I thought she might have left in a hurry to get somewhere. I was going to leave, but Shep, sorry my dog, he got loose from me and went in.”

They both nodded both taking notes. “And you went in after that?”

“Yes, sir. He wasn’t coming when he was called, and I just wanted to get him and get home to sleep.”

“Understandable, what happened when you entered the apartment, were there any discerning noises, anything unusual?”

“When I found him, I heard a gurgling sound. I didn’t know what it could be, and for some reason, probably because I’m an idiot, decided to turn the light on to see.”

Dolly patted her knee. “You’re not. An idiot I mean, it’s human nature to be curious. Now what I’m going to ask may be uncomfortable but can you tell me what you saw when the light came on?”

Her hand trembled as she let her thumb brush her chin. “Red, there was so much red. Then I saw that it was coming from the woman, Mrs. Tovia, she was tied up to a chair, her throat…”

Her hand clasped her own, Greenly leaning forward. “It’s okay, Miss Shafir, we’ll skip that, what did you do after?”

“I knew when the twitching and the way I was breathing I was starting to have a seizure so I left to get to the phone in my house, but I didn’t make it. I should’ve done something.”

The men looked at one another. “Ma’am there was nothing you could’ve done.”

“Yes there is! She died alone! I could’ve held her hand, called the police, something.”

“It’s a tragedy, it is, but what happened, you couldn’t have changed it. It was decided whether or not you did anything.”

Tears were running down her face now, and she turned away from them.

“We only have a few more questions, and we’ll leave you be. While you were still conscious can you remember if anyone else was on the building’s floor with you?”

She evened out her breathing, her mind reeling. She did remember a voice that whispered into her ear.

Seems as though you have been passed over again, little duck, but don’t worry we’ll see one another again.

That nickname sounded familiar but when she combed inside her no name attached to it came to mind.

“Yes. I think so. But with how I was it could’ve been a hallucination.”

They looked surprised. “Well, anything helps, what happened with the person.”

“He spoke to me.”

“So the person was male?”

“Yes.”

“And what did he say?”

“That I had been passed over. I think it was in reference to what happened to the doors.”

Dolly nodded. “We believe so, yes.”

She hiccupped. “He’s the one killing all the Jewish women. Isn’t he?”

“That is our assumption as of now.”

“Why didn’t he just kill me then?”

“We don’t know. We’re thinking he may kill one at a time.”

“So he’ll come back for me, right?”

Greenly’s lips tightened. “In our opinion, we think it’d be best if you took residence elsewhere, as a precaution. You have a dog, a good one at that, he’s why we believed someone was there, it looked as those he bit the assailant and he bled down the hall. You keep him as a way to protect you, maybe get yourself some mace or a gun, and we’ll give you our office and home phones in case you need anything.”

“May I ask something odd?”

“Of course, Miss Shafir.”

“Do you think these killings could be tied to the mob?”

They looked at her, perplexed. “Not that we’re aware of, why do you ask?”

“I don’t know, my imagination may be running away.”

“Well, like we’ve said if you need anything – protection, a safe place to stay, someone to talk to, anything give us a call.”

“Thank you both.”

“Thank you for your time, Miss Shafir, take care of yourself.”

“I’ll do my best.”

They gave her one last smile before leaving, allowing her to fall back on the bed and cry. When she was done, she hauled herself up, her legs wobbly as she went to wash her face. She was going to have to call someone, and she barely had a handful of people that came to mind. First she called the school, seeing if Claudette would be able to come, but her class was on a field trip to the fire department, when she asked for Janine the receptionist got really snippy refusing to interrupt an ongoing class.

Sera was glad she hadn’t given her name, because she told the receptionist just what she thought about that. Next she tried McGinty’s hoping Rocco or Doc would be there, but when she looked at the clock she should’ve known better, having it be too early to serve anyone. She kicked herself for not having either of their home numbers. Now as a last resort she got a phone book from the nurses’ station to look up the Toledo meat plant. She could picture how this was going to go and on the second ring was about to hang up, too bad someone answered.

“Toledo’s Meats, we cut ‘em and gut ‘em for ye.”

She wanted to tell the man that wasn’t the best slogan, but pushed it away. “I’m sorry, but is there any way I could speak with either Connor or Murphy MacManus?”

The phone line buzzed a second. “May I ask who’s calling, ma’am?”

“Um, Sera Shafir.”

His tone became friendlier then. “Aha, so you’re the lass the boys won’t shut up about.”

“I guess so, sir.”

“Oh, don’t give me the ‘sir’ shit, they certainly don’t. I’ll get one of ‘em for ya.”

“Thank you.”

She played with the sheets as a shuffling came on the line. “Hey there, love, couldn’t even wait til the day was over ta hear from us?”

It was Murphy, and she felt bad that she was going to probably end up taking that chipper note from his voice.

“Sort of, I hate to ask but I kind of need a favor.”

“Well, ye know you can ask anything, hell if we can do it fer ye we will, even though ye stood me up ta leave with my brother last night.”

She smiled, in spite of the situation. “You can blame your brother for that; he said you were fine with Rocco. And to be fair you were having a nice time.”

“Aye, fine, fine, ye can both be that way. What favor ye needing, aingeal?”

“I kind of need a ride.”

“What happened ta yer car?”

“Um, probably in the garage at home, but I’m not allowed to drive anyways –“

The confusion was becoming clearer in Murphy’s voice. “Where are ye?”

“You don’t have to get me now, I meant when you get off work. I – I have to get Shep to.”

“The hell, where’s he? Ain’tcha supposed ta keep him with you?”

“I am, but he’s in the pound.”

“The fuck? Where are ye love?”

She could hear muttering on the other line, and from the lilt she could tell Connor had come to see what was going on.

“I’m in the hospital.”

“The fuckin’ hospital!”

She could hear them both going on a tangent with each other, switching to Irish and speaking so fast she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She heard them fighting, and made out a few swears at each other when Connor’s voice came on the line.

“What happened to ye, aingeal girl, ye were fine when I saw ye last.”

She stayed silent, not sure how to say it.

“Sera, love?”

“Someone was murdered in the apartment next to mine.”

The cursing started again, and she could hear Murphy yelling over his brother.

“Are ye okay? Were you hurt?”

“I saw her body, Shep ran in the woman’s place and I saw her, the fear and panic made me have a seizure, that’s why I’m here.”

They continued yelling at one another, then a third male joining their choir.

“Well, just be off with the two of ya then!”

“We’ll be right over ta getcha, love.”

“No, I told Murph –“

“Fuck that, we’re getting ye, okay?”

“Thank you.”

Connor didn’t answer going back to hollering with Murphy, after a minute she took that to mean to hang up. After that was settled, she called the animal shelter to make sure Shep was there, and they told her he was fine though he was depressed being separated from his owner. Well, no shit, she wouldn’t want to be stuck in a cage with a bunch of strangers either.

Changing into her clothes from last night, she grimaced at the small smudge of blood on her thigh. The police had taken her shoes, there was too much blood on them and the hospital had disposed them, leaving her stuck with plastic sandals the staff gave her. Returning the phone book she asked them if she could wait in the lobby until her ride came.

“I’m sorry, dear, we have to keep you on this floor until you’re signed out.”

“Seriously? I’ll still be in the building.”

“It’s protocol.”

She snorted retreating to the day room, glad that she had change in her purse to get some junk food out of the vending machine. She was going to need sugar and fat to stay in here. They only had a sofa and stiff chairs around the tables to sit at, and finding a deck of cards near a bible she settled for playing solitaire while munching on her candy bar.

“Miss Shafir, you’re, um, there’s two gentlemen here for you if you could come out.”

The nurse was extremely distressed, Sera wanted to tell her that’s what they get for not letting her sit downstairs but oh well. They’d know better now. She saw the boys at the nurses’ counter both still hectic and now ornery, arguing with the nurses. She walked up to them, putting her hand on Murphy’s arm, and it was odd, as he turned to face her, seeing such anger on his face that usually held such warmth. He relaxed immediately his hands coming up to cup her face.

“Ye all right, love, they wouldn’t tell us nothin’ til they got you. Almost got in a wreck getting over here.”

She smiled, putting her hands over his. “I told you both I was fine.”

Connor came up then squeezing her from behind. “Had a fuckin’ seizure ye said, that’s not nothin’. Shouldn’t have left ye alone last night. Fuckin’ sorry, love.” She hugged him back with one arm, Murphy still holding her front. “It’s not your fault, Connor, and I’m fine.”

Murphy kissed her forehead, fear and sadness lurking in the blue. “If anything happened ta ye love, fuck, we’d –“

She could feel the nurses watching the three of them, and their intimate display. She wanted to tell them to mind their own business, but didn’t want to upset the boys any more than they were.

“It didn’t. I’m fine, I’ve recovered, walking, talking, I just want to get Shep and get home.”

She felt Connor jerk away. “Ye ain’t going back there, love.”

“I know, the police already advised me to leave, but I need to get a few things to take to the hotel –“

Murphy furrowed his brows. “Ain’t staying at no hotel either.”

The corner of her mouth quirked. “I have to, until I find somewhere else to stay.”

“Yer staying with us, aingeal.”

Her breath caught. “I can’t do that.”

“Course, ye can, after all that ye think we’d let you out of our sight?”

She rubbed her hands on her hips separating herself from them. “It’s another thing to talk about today.”

Murphy shook his head. “Nothin’ to talk about, yer staying with us.”

“Murphy, I’m tired, and full of sedatives, I want to go to sleep not argue.”

His arm went around her. “We signed ye out before ye got here, let’s get on then.”

“I have to get Shep.”

Connor twirled keys around his fingers. “I’ll drop ye two off and I’ll get him, aingeal, don’t worry.”

“I need clothes and stuff, come on guys, you’re already missing work, I can go –“

Murphy tugged her towards the elevators. “Taking the day off, now come on, thought ye didn’t want ta argue.”

“We already got yer clothes, girl. Where’d ye think we got the car? You sure ye should be walking, could get ye a wheelchair?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m good, I just want to change my clothes and lay down somewhere.”

“We’ll get ye there, girlie.”

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#the boondock saints #boondock saints #connor murphy #connor macmanus #murphy macmanus #connor and murphy macmanus #sean patrick flanery #norman reedus #oc #my ocs #chapter 7

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